Bhaktishala has been able to ...

Vishal's Story

​

Neither was it an amusing morning TV show nor was it a cup of Starbucks coffee that energized Vishal in the morning, but it was rather the roaring sound of the tiny engine in his father's ricksha that drove Vishal from the cool dirt floor to the slightly teared front seat. It was not the speedy ride that enticed him, but it was his final destination - the KP Amin School -  that not only motivated him, but also gave him hope. With his mother and father always telling him that this extra 20 minute ride would become "the ride out of poverty," Vishal was inspired to let go of his predetermined future as a storeowner in the impoverished village. "Everyday" he said, "I would always see more goats around the store than rupees in my father's pocket." It was this sight, the quality education and the vivid atmosphere in the KP Amin School, that changed Vishal's life. From seeing him running in the farm with his friends - falling into the hardships that life would later throw at him - to looking at him with his eraserless pencil and tattered notebook, his mother was shocked. To his mother, father, and Vishal, the KP Amin School was worth the extra commute, the extra money, as it brought quality education that would act as the eraser to his pencil - the eraser that would wipe his past and bring about a new beginning.