“Life won’t ever be the same, but I’m not complaining.”
Harshul is a 13-year-old girl who lives in a shelter home in Delhi. She is an optimistic girl, full of dreams. Despite having seen things go wrong, right in front of her eyes, she is happy and thinks life will be good to her someday.
“My father passed away in January 2016. He was admitted to the hospital and on the day he was to be discharged, he passed away . It happened in front of me, I saw him lying there, the image is etched in my brain. I will never forget the day.”
Harshul lived with her mother, two elder sisters and her younger brother. But after her father, things started getting difficult financially. So the family decided to put her in a shelter home.
“Both my elder sisters are very talented. One of them graduated, but the other couldn’t complete college due to lack of finances. They are looking for a job right now and right now all of us are dependent on our mother.”
Despite facing problems at such a tender age in her life, Harshul decided to stay on the positive side of things in her life. She wants to become a teacher when she grows up and impart education, as a means to empower everyone.
“Ma’am, acha bura toh laga rehta hai life mein. Ab ye toh humpe hai na ke hum kaise jeena chahte hain. Haa mai apne ghar se durr hu par ye bhi toh dusra ghar hi hai, ye log bhi toh family hain.”
(Ma’am, life is a mix of good and bad things, but it depends on us how we choose to live, with the positive or negative. Yes, I’m away from my home but this (the shelter home) is also home, these people too, are my family.)
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to figure out how she find all the positivity she has in herself. But one thing that she has imbibed in me, is that it is our choice where to look in life, the better or the worse.
In the words of Albus Dumbledore,
“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of the places if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
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