Street urchins .....with flying colours

HYDERABAD: The school principal announced during a morning assembly that a particular student, his favourite at that, had stolen computer equipment from the lab. For 14-year-old Ram Mohan, the insult was too much to bear. He ran away from Vijayawada, boarded a train to Secunderabad and worked as a coolie for two years.
Ram Mohan thought he would never be the same again and had reconciled to menial labour.That was when Bala Tejassu, an organisation working for street children, chanced upon him at the railway station. The NGO sent Ram Mohan to Dr Reddy’s Foundation, where he prepared for his tenth standard. On Thursday, Ram Mohan, now 17, learnt that he had cleared the exams.
“In his Vijayawada school, Ram Mohan was considered a dependable student, which was why the principal gave him the computer lab keys for safekeeping.However, some friends of his managed to steal the keys from him and they stole the equipment. The blame stuck on him and he ran away,� recounts Bharath, a coordinator with Bala Tejjasu.
Despite the cruel game played on him by fate, the boy’s pride is intact. “His father called many times and asked him to return. Ram told his parents that he would return only after clearing his tenth standard exams.�
According to Bharath, Ram Mohan plans to become a software engineer. He also plans to visit his parents and school.
Eighteen-year-old Narayana, who too was helped by Bala Tejjasu in clearing his tenth standard exams, however, plans to join an NGO and help less fortunate children.
Narayana lost his parents when he was seven. Unable to stand his elder brother’s harassment, the boy ran away from his home in Ankapalle in Vishakapatnam.
The seven-year-old caught a train to Secunderabad and from here went to Mumbai. After he was picked up by the police from a railway station and sent to a juvenille.