If there's a will, there's a way to smash any glass ceiling in the world. A tea vendor's son proved this by clearing the tough chartered accountancy (CA) exams.
Gaurav Pandit, 24, whose father Niranjan Kumar Pandit is a tea vendor in Azad Market, Telco, is ecstatic on clearing the CA exams, the nationwide results of which were declared on Tuesday. Scoring 53 per cent, Gaurav cleared the exam in his second attempt.
Luck and brains played a role in charting out this unique destiny, Gaurav, who grew up in an impoverished family among four siblings and yet studied in prestigious institutions like Little Flower School (LFS) in Jamshedpur and Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration in Calcutta, admitted.
For kindergarten, father Niranjan, then a casual worker in Tata Motors, took Gaurav to LFS, mortgaging his wife's jewellery for school fees. When then principal Sister Helena learnt about the family's circumstances, she waived the boy's fees till Class VI.
Gaurav was bright and did well in school, holding his own among affluent classmates. Teachers loved him. "But had it not been for Sister Helena's generosity, I wouldn't have managed to study," Gaurav, who came to his hometown from Calcutta on Wednesday morning, said.
He's no less grateful to dad Niranjan, now 65, who had opened his tea stall while Gaurav was in school, and mother, homemaker Manju, 47. "After Plus Two from LFS, my father encouraged me to study in a good college. How else can a tea vendor's son dream of staying in a hostel in Calcutta?"
"Since Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration is a government college and I also got a scholarship through merit test, I managed to study my BCom, tutoring school and college students to meet my expenses in Calcutta," he said, adding that once he graduated, he managed to find a job with a CA firm JAV and Associates at Lalbazar.
Gaurav's first priority now is to get a decent job and help his family, he stressed.
Birsanagar resident Niranjan, who earns about Rs 7,000, was almost speechless at his son's achievement. " Main kya bolun, sabko aaj free main chai, biscuit aur laddoo khila raha hoon (What can I can say, today I am offering tea, biscuits and sweets to all for free who are coming to my stall)," he said at his makeshift tea stall of bamboo and polythene.
"I will only thank God who made me see this day. I read about our country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji was also once a tea-seller," said the elderly man, who was felicitated by district BJP president Dinesh Kumar Sahu in Telco in the afternoon.
