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.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
Comments
Hats off to the noble and public service of great Hajabba. State and Central govt should recognise services of this live saint. Well done Hajabba. May God bless u
After conquering three universities in karnataka this silent saint entered Kerala. That's a marvelous journey of life.
Well deserved!
Hats off.
Great personality. Inspiration to others to follow how to do social work.
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