There was an SMS passed from cellphone to cellphone on Obbama's victory,
mainly among African-Americans:
Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama
ran so your children can fly.'
Rosa is Rosa Parks, who initiated the Montgomery bus strike by refusing to
sit in the back of the bus; she sat in front and was arrested. This led to
a long bus strike in which African Americans walked and boyycotted buses;
during that strike Martin Luther King rose to leadership.
Gail
On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 10:59 PM, Siddhartha Kumar
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOI/navigator.asp?Daily=TOIHlogin=defaultAW=1225819809359
RESERVED FOR SUCCESS
Sudipta Sengupta | TNN
Like many other youngsters even Srinu Dhaisettti wants to go to a
premier institute for an MTech degree, work for a top notch
multinational company and live a fulfilling life. And from where he
stands today his dream still seems a little distant but not impossible
like it was until two years ago.
Born into a family that merely managed two square meals a day,
lived in a crammed shelter and had never travelled beyond East
Godavari district, Srinu was made to believe that big dreams were not
meant for him.
So despite a 73 per cent in his Class X board examination and then
a 72 per cent in his Diploma from Andhra Polytechnic College, the
pressure to provide financial support to the family took him to
Chennai for a job with a meagre salary.
My father is a weaver in Kattamuru (my home town) and earns as
little as Rs. 5,000. My mother is a housewife and I also have a
younger brother who is still in school. My sister had to drop out
after Class VIII and is now married. With such a situation at home, I
had to start earning soon so that I could fund my brother's
education, says the 22-year-old who feels that an impressive academic
record is not always enough to climb the ladder.
While in Chennai, my colleagues first inspired me to study further
so that I could take up a better job and earn even more. But the
thought of not being able to supplement the family earnings for a
while, stopped me from going for it. However, after a year I decided I
would do my engineering and wrote the Engineering Common Entrance Test
in 2007, he says.
Today Srinu is part of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru
Technological University, Hyderabad and is looking forward to a career
in civil engineering. But the journey has not been easy. When I told
my parents about my decision, they were very angry. I was sending home
a few thousand rupees every month from Chennai and they knew if I gave
the job up to study that extra earning would stop. And that meant more
struggle for my parents to make ends meet, says the son who is sure
to provide every comfort to his parents once he gets a better job.
And not only his parents who later gave in to his demand, Srinu
also thanks the quota system for being able to make it to JNTU which
has helped him realise his dreams and work even harder to achieve
them. Though I had ranked eighth in ECET I would not have managed a
seat in the university because it had only three seats. So the Other
Backward Classes (OBC) quota helped me get into the university and I
am rather thankful to the government for providing us which such a
privilege, says Srinu, who continues to supplement his family's
income by teaching diploma students after college hours.
Principal of JNTU, N.V. Ramana Rao, is proud of this one student.
Had it not been for the quota facility, we would have lost talents
like Srinu. Though he got a seat through the OBC quota he is now the
second topper of his second year batch and I am sure he will do the
college proud by becoming a successful man some day, he says.
Meanwhile, Srinu has his eyes firmly fixed on his goal. My next
target is an M-Tech from IITKharagpur. If I can achieve that I will
feel that I have won the battle, he says.
