Muhammed Ali Shihab has faced many tests in his life. Some he had no control over: his father died when he was 11, his impoverished mother sent him away to an orphanage, he was forced to stop studying to take up a peon’s job, and family circumstances forced him to drop out of even Civil Services coaching. Others Shihab took on himself: an Arabic medium-student, who has cleared 21 exams so far conducted by various government agencies for all kinds of posts, yesterday joined the ranks of India’s successful Civil Service Examination candidates.

It was the 31-year-old’s third attempt, and he ranks 226th on the list. However, for the boy who spent 10 years in a Muslim orphanage, who wrote his Mains in Malayalam and appeared for the interview with the help of a translator for want of proficiency in English, it is a giant leap.

When his father Koroth Ali died, Shihab was a student of Class V. The family made its living from a makeshift paan shop in their village Edavannappara in Malappuram, and Shihab shared a two-room house with four siblings, including a brother and three sisters.

His mother Fathima, a housewife, had no means to feed the children. “As a last option, mother took me and my two younger sisters to a Muslim-managed orphanage in Kozhikode district in 1991,” recalls Shihab. Fathima’s only comfort was that her children were good at studies.

Read more..
Courtesy: Indianexpress.com