'Poor by money; rich by heart': Twitterati lauds orange vendor Hajabba for Padma Shri

India's fourth-highest civilian award - the Padma Shri, was bestowed to Harekala Hajabba on Monday. Hajabba, an orange vendor hailing from Karnataka's Mangaluru received the prestigious honour from the President of India Ram Nath Kovind for bringing a revolution in rural education by constructing a school in Harekala-Newpadpu village in Mangaluru. 

The school built by Hajabba currently claims an enrolment of 175 underprivileged students from the village. However, Hajabba who has been selling orange at the Mangalore bus depot for the past 44 years, has himself not received formal education.

'Failure to talk with foreigners ignited the desire for bringing revolution'

As per Hajabba, the urge for making education available even to the most underprivileged in his village came into his mind after he failed to communicate with a foreigner who had asked him for oranges. "As I could not communicate with the foreigner, I felt bad and decided to build a school in the village," the Padma Shri awardee told ANI.

"I only know Kannada, nor English or Hindi. So I was depressed that I couldn't help the foreigner. I wondered about constructing a school in my village," he added. 

His dream of constructing a school was fulfilled only after two decades when Former MLA late UT Fareed sanctioned the construction in the year 2000. He earned the title Akshara Santa (letter Saint) because of his philanthropic work. A humble heart, Hajabba still wakes up early in the morning to sweep the school premises. He boils drinking water for students and teachers, treating the campus as his own home. He was bestowed with the award of the 'Person of the year' by Kannada Prabha newspaper in 2004 and 'Real Heroes' award by CNN-IBN in 2009.

Padma Awardee to construct more schools for educating pupils

The education institution had started with 28 students and now imparts education to 175 pupils until class 10. Hajabba with the money he has won after receiving several awards in these many years wants to use them in the construction of more schools in the village.

Speaking about his next target, the 66-year-old man said that his next target is to build more schools and colleges in the village. "Many people have donated money and I have accumulated prize money for the construction of schools and colleges," he said.

Hajabba added that he had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to construct a pre-university college (for classes 11 and 12) in his village. He also acknowledged President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, District in-charge minister Kota Srinivasa Poorjary and MLA UTKhadar for recognising his philanthropic work.

The Central government had announced the names of Padma Awardees in January 2020, however, due to COVID protocols, the award was distributed on Monday.

'He is a true hero and deserves much more' Twitterati on Harekala Hajabba

Twitterati, on learning the news of Hajabba being awarded took to the microblogging platform to shower praises on the humanitarian. A user lauded Hajjaba's thoughts and his aim to build the school and wrote that he deserves more respect. Meanwhile, another Twitter user wrote that people like Harekala Hajabba existing in our country means that India is heading in the right direction as a nation. See some reactions below.

With inputs from ANI

Image: ANI