Not an Usual 12 Year Story

Hello, my name is Deepak. I am 12 years old..

I live in delhi city, with my Aai, Baba and two younger sisters.

My father owns a tea stall and mother works as a maid in a lot of big, beautiful homes. We live in a small room, in a big slum called chunna Bhatti .

My two sisters go to school sometimes, but they mostly spend their time at home doing household chores

I attended school till I was 10 years old.

We learnt so many new things that my parents did not know, I got to play with other children and the teachers made sure that we did our homework and studied hard. I hoped that someday I too could become a teacher.

Then one day my father got a swelling in liver, local community doctor told us , this problem occurred due to alcohol .being addicted towards alcohol he hardly spend any money at home for our wellbeing , it is my mother who takes care of all the household expenditure with her little income .

After my father sickness, it is now me, who needs to take care, our small tea shop.

Now my day starts at 6am. I help serve customers chai till the morning rush slips away,

Then I go across our local community to sell chai to the various shops and stores that are open. This is my favourite part of the day. I learn the most through seeing other people at work, the hustle and bustle of the city excites me. In my head, I imagine where these busy people might be going to and secretly wish that I too could travel to these fascinating places. Sometimes I see a yellow school bus, filled with children shouting and playing with each other. This makes me sad and I begin to miss the games and activities we played with each other in school.

While serving tea at our local community slum, I discover a free computer training course, which was offered by CARE INDIA WELFARE TRUST.I immediately decided that I have to join this , I tried to complete all my works by 5 pm then rush straight to get my hand on those lovely machines ,they call it computer.

So, my life isn’t all that bad. I’m still learning new things every day and helping my parents earn more money so that we can shift to a nicer home soon.

My English and computer skills are getting better day by day , hopefully it will help me in exploring new ventures . I wish I could have have joined them last year.as they have taken all the students for an education trip to various location around delhi.