Slice of Life: ‘My goal is to educate our daughter so that she doesn’t suffer like us’

I am from Sivakasi, Virudhunagar, in southern Tamil Nadu. I studied till Class 7, after which I dropped out of school and started working. In the initial two years, I worked in a firecracker unit in my hometown which is, known as the hub of firecracker manufacturing. After that, I came to Chennai to live with my uncle. I stayed at his house and helped him in the groceries shop he had set up here. I worked with him for 15 years. When I got married, my uncle set up a separate grocery shop for me so that I would be able to take care of my family. But, six years later, I had to wind up the business after suffering heavy loss. As my family, including my wife and little daughter, are dependent on my income, my brother came forward to help me to set up a fruit shop in an autorickshaw. For the past eight months, I have been going through the roads in the city selling fruits. If I can manage to sell fruit worth Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 in a day, I can make enough profit to support my family and lead a decent life. Now, my only aim is to educate my daughter, because I don’t want her to suffer like us. I have admitted her in a private English medium school in Perambur. Even though I have to borrow money to pay her fees, I want her to get educated and be successful in life.