Helping Shivaperumal

[Gayathri Nayar]

Dear friends,
    Mr. Shivaperumal is a young man living near the campus with his wife and young children aged five and six. He works as a driver for a businessman, and also runs a tiny cycle repair service near Vana Vani in his spare time. His own children are studying in an English-medium school in Kotturpuram, and their academic expenses together amount to nearly Rs. 5000 per month. His rental accommodation in the city too costs almost as much. His monthly income of about Rs. 12000 does not cover all his immediate expenses and he has been hard put these last several months to pay his children's school fees and the house rent. If these circumstances  continue, he would be forced to return to his native village, which the family is loathe to do because the village lacks a good school for his children.

    To the best of my knowledge, Shiva is a hard worker and a teetotaller, as well as being a pleasant and well-mannered man. He earnestly seeks opportunities to support his family in the city through honest work, and I felt that some of us on the campus may be in a position to help him by offering him employment or through other means. In addition to the other work he does, he also washes cars and can serve as a driver in his spare time. He may also greatly appreciate employment for his wife as domestic help on campus, if the job includes an accommodation in the servants' quarters. I reckoned (perhaps optimistically) that if only ten to fifteen of our hundreds of car-owning families thought fit to employ him to wash their cars once a week, he could easily tide over his present financial crisis.

    I hoped that some of us may like to ponder over his situation and come together to lend this young, struggling householder a helping hand and a stepping stone. If you would like to assist him, please do feel free to write to me or contact Shiva directly at 9962464557.

Warm regards,
Gayathri