After stitching balls for a living,Karan’s on a roll

Karan himself used to stitch footballs to meet the expenses of his studies. “My parents with little education never wanted me to do small chores and always used to inspire me to do something big,” said Karan.

When I was in class 12,I told them about my dream of becoming an engineer and they went all out to support me,” said Karan while adding that when he could not clear in his first attempt,his parents never let his morale down and borrowed money from relatives so that he could join coaching classes.

My grandmother,Tilak Kaur,from her little pension and my mama (maternal uncle) gave my parents around Rs 50,000 for my coaching classes,said Karan,who loves to play cricket.

His mother Kamla Devi and father were on cloud nine today. “We both stitched footballs day and night to make some extra bucks to meet the coaching expenses of Karan and now we got the sweet reward,” said his mother while adding that they had been through a time when they could not even afford to pay his school fee.

Karan had scored 80 per cent marks in class 10 and 64 per cent in class 12.

Karan,who shares the one- room house with three siblings – two sisters and one brother – after completing his class 10 in the Hindi medium from Devi Sahaya SD School Jalandhar had joined Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya Talwandi Madho,around 20 km from here,along with one of his sisters as his father,Ramesh Kumar,could not afford to pay even his school fee.

The eldest among his siblings,Karan wants to become a mechanical engineer.