We've known Manikanta since 2006. He lived on the streets of Mysore, where he hung out with his friends Venkatesh, Sreenivasa, Nanjunda, Lokesh, and Harish. When we opened our children's home, he wanted to come to stay with us even though he had never attended school, and he was nine years of age.
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| Manikanta in 2009 |
Manikanta had a rough start to his education, ran away from Karunya Mane several times over the years, and often talked about going back to the streets to live because he missed his "freedom." But he stuck with it, and we stuck with him, and today we learned that he passed the pressure-filled SSLC (10th grade) exam. He'll now continue on to 11th and 12th grades (called Pre-University College here, or PUC).
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| Manikanta in 2014 |
We are so happy for Manikanta, who at times seems a bit lost and lacking direction in comparison to our other former street boys who are finding their paths away from the streets a little more confidently. Manikanta also misses his mother, but no none has any idea where she may be. Usually, our other moms or friends on the street have information on one another, but nobody has seen Manikanta's mom for years.
Congratulations to Manikanta!
On another note, to all of the parents out there, we hope that whatever the outcome of your child's SSLC or PUC exams, you are encouraging and supportive. Too many kids are committing suicide over lower than hoped for exam results because of the pressures they face to get high scores and, thus, spots in prestigious colleges -- such tragedies are simply unnecessary.
