Harekala Hajabba's saga now textbook lesson in Kerala too

Mangaluru, Sep 28: Harekala Hajabba, the unlettered saint of letters', who has created history by establishing a school at a remote village in Dakshina Kannada district, has entered into the textbook of Kerala state this academic year.

Ironically, the selfless achiever, who already has found a place in the texts of three universities in Karnataka, is not aware of the fact that his life story is being taught to the high school students in the bordering state.

A short biography of this orange vendor-cum-educationist titled Akshara Santa Harekala Hajabba' (Harekala Hajabba, the saint of letters), is one of the lessons in the Kannada text book part -1 prescribed for Class 8 students by Kerala education board.

The lesson is an extract from budding Kannada writer Ismat Pajeer's Kannada work 'Aparoopada Samaaja Sevaka Harekala Hajabba' (Harekala Hajabba, a rare social worker).

The 60-year-old man's unusual saga of struggle and success has already been included in the Kannada textbook for the students of the Davanagere, Kuvempu and Mangalore universities.

Hajabba hails from a small village called Harekala near Konaje. Despite being an illiterate, who survived by selling oranges on the roads in Mangaluru, Hajabba dreamt of spreading education among children in his village and surroundings.

He put his heart, soul and income into Neopadpu ZP Higher Primary School' (now, Composite High School). Whatever the school is today is solely because of Hajabba's efforts. After living a simple life of an orange vendor for years, his service was first recognised by a Mangaluru-based Kannada journalist who published an article on Hajabba.

From then on, there has been no looking back for Hajabba. He bagged several state and national level awards too. None of these has changed humble Hajabba. As expected, all the cash rewards have been utilised by Hajabba for his school.