For days,28-year-old Lalit Jain would wake up at 3 in the morning,have a quick shower,grab a bite and mount his cycle for yet another round of newspaper delivery. Jain,who has been working at his father Shashi Pal Jains newspaper agency,recalls the days of waking up before the crack of dawn,and making sure the newspaper,one of the important fast moving consumer items,reaches the residences on time. Come rain,sun or storm,he would never miss a delivery. Today,all the discipline and hard-work has translated into success for Jain who made the headlines when he cleared the civil services exam this year from the Kharar. Being an IAS officer was always a dream,and its the newspaper that I read and delivered that helped me fulfil my dream, smiles a triumphant Jain. Something that seems ordinary and basic for many is in fact a means to success for these bunch of city boys who have realised or are in the process of making their dreams come true by selling or delivering newspapers. Thanks to the newspapers,I had the advantage of laying my hands on all the dailies in Hindi,English and Punjabi, says Jain. After his achievement,there are students not only from his locality but from far off areas like New Delhi,Madhya Pradesh and interiors of Punjab and Haryana who seek his guidance. Various schools and colleges in Kharar,Panchkula and Mohali invite Jain to motivate students and provide coaching for the competitive exams. Elsewhere,Ashish Kundu,a student of non-medical stream,Class XII at the Government Model Senior Secondary School,Sector 19,Chandigarh is busy helping his father,Rajbeer Singh in hawking newspapers. All the hours have resulted in 86 per cent in his Board examinations and now he aims at a 90 per cent in Class XII. All this while selling newspapers and earning his pocket money. These are my savings for my dream to be an engineering graduate, says Kundu who helps his father religiously in the morning for two hours,goes to school,and then takes time out to study. Pradeep Sharma a Class XII student of commerce,besides working at Jeet News Agency,hawks newspapers in various marked sectors too. This is how we run our homes, adds Ram Prasad,a resident of Sector 19,Chandigarh,who also works as a newspaper hawker along with his elder son Prakash Sharma,who cleared his tenth board this year,securing the highest (Cumulative Grade Point Average) CGPA - a perfect 10 at the Government Model Senior Secondary School,Sector 19,Chandigarh. I would be up with my father,at 4 am,delivering newspapers and would come back at 7:15,and head straight to school, he says. In spite of all this tiring work,he studied and made his parents proud by securing the highest grade without taking any tuitions. Prakash prefers the non-medical stream now. Like Jain,Kundu and Sharma Sunil,a student of Class X of Government Model Senior Secondary School,Sector 35,Chandigarh,Vinay,a Class XII student,studying in Sri Guru Gobind Singh Senior Secondary School,Sector 35,too deliver newspapers. This is our job,and no matter what I have to be here,and get the job done at any cost,otherwise,well not make money, says Sharma. Interestingly,Indias former President,A.P.J Abdul Kalso too worked as a newspaper hawker and would go through the news himself before selling the papers.
