Harekala Hajabba: The street vendor who built a school by selling oranges #IndianHeroes

Chances are, you would ignore  Harekala Hajabba if you saw him outside your car window, trying to sell oranges to you. You would never recognize him. After all, he is just a street vendor selling his wares. Except he isn't 'just' an ordinary vendor.

For over four decades,  Harekala Hajabba has been making a 23 km trip from his village to Mangalore every morning with his basket of oranges to earn his livelihood. For the last 18 years, he doesn't spend the money entirely on his family though.

No, that money from the oranges he sells goes to the school Harekala Hajabba has built for the poor children in his village.

An incident in the 1990s where Mr Hajabba felt humiliated when he failed to make a British couple understand the price of the oranges he was trying to sell ignited a thought in his mind: he wanted to make sure that the next generation was not denied an opportunity for education like he had been due to lack of facilities.

There were no easy paths, of course. The villagers laughed at the uneducated orange seller dreaming of building a school. His wife constantly rebuked him for investing money in this project when his own three children were not getting three meals a day.

But Hajabba persevered. Alongside selling oranges on the streets of Mangalore, he knocked on the doors of government officials to demand amenities for his village. What started off as a tiny room in a madrasa in 1999 would finally bear fruit when a half acre of land he bought was donated for constructing a government school and in 2004, the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Higher Primary School was inaugurated in Newpadupu.

Thanks to his efforts, the children of the village - who till then used to help their mothers roll beedis for a living just like Hajabba had in his childhood - now have a proper education. What is more, to ensure the children do not fall back after their higher studies, Hajabba continues his venture even today, aiming to get a pre-university college in the village for the children.

For his selfless efforts,  Harekala Hajabba was chosen as one of the Real Heroes of CNN-IBN in 2009. 

It goes without saying that the orange seller spent the Rs 5 lakh cash prize he got to buy more land for the high school so that the children could have a ground to play on as well.

• Harekala Hajabba's life story is now a chapter in Mangalore University's MA course syllabus.
•  There is a book written about his deeds. 
• As I mentioned, he is a winner of the Real Heroes of CNN-IBN. 
• He has built an entire school by selling oranges in the street. 

Yet, even today, in his 60s, you will find this inspiring hero on the streets of Mangalore, selling oranges so that the children of his native village can have an education.

 

Author's note:

For the last few years, I have been maintaining a list of real life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion from across the world. The aim, of course, is to restore faith in humanity for those who need it most.

This month, for the #MyFriendAlexa challenge, I will be showcasing local heroes from across the country who make a difference with their kindness. Yes, it is a Heroes of Kindness - Indian edition!

I am taking my Alexa rank to the next level with Blogchatter.