Just the other day, I had the privilege of visiting an orphanage. Why call it privilege, you ask? I will tell you in a while. Anyway, I was accompanying a friend who was celebrating his birthday by donating some groceries and sweets to the children there. I thought it would be a nice opportunity to interact with the kids and see how they were being treated. Even though I went with an open mind, nothing could have prepared me for what was to come.

Parthiban came to me with a smile and gave me a confident handshake. My 10 minute conversation with him changed my entire understanding of the life that kids like him lead, being orphans. I have always thought that such kids are less fortunate than the rest of us, because they don’t have parents or a family. Most, if not all, of the children that end up at such orphanages were abandoned by their parents either owing to their poverty or fear of social stigma (in the case of unwanted pregnancies and such).

Parthiban came to the orphanage when he was merely a year old and he has no recollection of his family. They probably would have been from a very poor background, perhaps working in a stone quarry or a coal factory or a cotton farm. Known for its female feticide records, India is not a country where a male child is just given away or abandoned, however poor a family is. He would have grown up, neither getting the nutrition he needed nor the basic education that is required to survive in our society with some dignity. His life would have been doomed being a child laborer in the same quarry, factory or farm.

Instead, life took a turn for Parthiban when his parents decided to throw him away. I understood from Kumar, the warden at the orphanage, that he was found in a garbage bin outside the city wrapped in a piece of sack. They took him in, clothed him, fed him and gave him shelter. But more importantly, they gave him good education. He is 14 now and attending 10th grade at the school run by the orphanage. He is the brightest student in a class of 45 and intends to score a top rank in the State Board annual exams.

He spoke about things that no other kid his age would normally talk about – politics, governance, justice system. I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. He smiled and said, “I will be an IAS officer”.

Parthiban, un kanavu nanavaagattum. May your dream come true.