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Journalism of Courage
A heartwarming post on r/Indian_Flex has been winning over Reddit for reasons far removed from the usual ‘flexes’ that involve travel, gadgets or fancy lifestyles. Instead, it tells a deeply human story of grit, loss, responsibility and quiet perseverance.
The anonymous Redditor, now 35 and father to a toddler, opened up about his journey from a small farming village in Uttar Pradesh to earning an annual salary of around Rs 35 lakh while working remotely. His story begins in rural UP, when his father worked as a security guard in Delhi to support the family. A relative stepped in to fund his engineering degree at a Tier-3 college – a crucial move that changed the trajectory of his life.
Everything shifted in 2013, during his third year of BTech, when his father suddenly passed away. What followed were 18 months of bare-bones survival. He managed to graduate in 2014 and eventually secured a job at Accenture through an off-campus drive, though the joining date came after a frustrating 10-month wait. When he finally started in 2015, his salary was Rs 3.15 LPA, modest, but a vital first step.
In 2018, he moved to EY and began earning Rs 7.5 LPA. Life stabilised a little, debts were slowly being cleared, and the family settled into a rented home in Delhi. But in late 2020, tragedy struck again with the loss of his mother. Overnight, the full responsibility of raising his younger siblings, a sister in Class 12 and a brother in Class 8, fell on him. He relocated the family to Baraut in Uttar Pradesh, where their ancestral house was barely habitable – two cramped rooms for six people.
Still, he refused to compromise on his siblings’ education. His sister went on to join the Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women, and his brother was admitted to Delhi Public School (DPS), Sonepat. By mid-2021, he began rebuilding the family home, and by October 2022, the new house was complete. A month later, he got married, financing both the construction and the wedding through a Rs 20 lakh personal loan. That entire loan was cleared by August 2025.
During this time, his career grew steadily. Today, he earns about Rs 35 lakh per annum while working from home. His financial snapshot paints the picture of someone who prioritised family over aggressive wealth-building – he has around Rs 5.5 lakh in fixed deposits, gold worth roughly Rs 20 lakh collected during his wedding, a term insurance of Rs 1.6 crore that increases yearly, health insurance from his employer worth Rs 10 lakh, and an emergency fund of Rs 2 lakh that he continues to top up every month.
His siblings are doing well too. His sister now earns Rs 11 lakh per annum, and his brother is in his second year of BTech.
Reflecting on everything he endured, he wrote, “I may not have big savings right now, but my biggest wealth is the fact that I kept moving forward, no matter how hard life hit me. Because success is not just about what you earn, it’s about what you overcome.”
The comments section, still visible despite the post being taken down, is full of praise and emotion. “This is really very inspiring and its required an immense ammount of courage to go through all the hurdles…” one user wrote. Another shared, “Damn teared up when I reached the photos… My dad passed in 2009 and since then my mum has been working and handling everything for me and my sister… Hope I can make her happy one day.”
A third voice summed up what many felt: “You are a real inspiration.”
