A shirtless man with a joyful face dressed in a lungi hands me a coconut he’s just chopped from his yard with his machete. His wife sits in the room, smiling at us with shy, curious glances. We are in a small village just outside of Kolkata visiting the father of the man with the machete, Jalaluddin Gazi, a taxi driver who has devoted the last fifteen years of his life to building orphanages for kids in the nearby Sundarban area.

Jalaluddin

He grew up poor in a village outside of Kolkata and as a kid, he used to scavenge for food with his five brothers on the streets. He badly wanted an education and was eager to study, but to his great disappointment, his family pulled him out of school at age seven. “Forget books, many times, we did not even have food,” he told us.

Jalaluddin migrated to the city to earn a meager living as a beggar and eventually began to work pulling a rickshaw cart. Years later he began driving a taxi and after many years of hard work, he saved up to buy it.

He always remembered his dream as a child to have an education so that he could make something of himself. Now with that taxi and the support of many of his passengers he has earned enough to build and facilitate three orphanages so hundreds of kids can receive the education he so badly wanted as a child. Word of his work and story has traveled far and wide and we easily learned about his orphanage online. Endearingly, he had no idea of his internet presence and was amazed when we showed him a google search on his name revealing article after article about the work he’s been doing.

Jalaluddin and his family discover all the news articles written about him 

Tomorrow he will drive with us to his orphanage where we will host our third Hearts of the World workshop. I am so excited for it~

Sometimes I have mixed feelings about the workshops we’ve done in deeply disadvantaged areas. Hearts of the World is about inviting kids to express themselves and explore their ambitions and dreams through painting. Part of me thinks, “Ok so I am encouraging them to dream, but many kids dream of being a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer etc… what opportunity do they have? So many cannot get enough education to learn to read.” How can they make their dreams a reality?” 

Jalaluddin shows the future building plan of his school. ( pic via TwoCircles.net)

But the project plants an important seed, and for some kids, it will grow. Jalaluddin’s story is a great example of how hard work, fueled by passion can bring you so far, and how fulfilling it is to lead a purposeful life.