I was born in 1973 in a Sheikh family in Lahore. My parents commanded respect, and, though poor, were very honourable people. My training up to the age of seven was conduced by my mother, who was an educated lady. She took great care of me, and strictly enforced cleanliness and regularity. She made my work, though when the time came, she gladly let me off to play. Her stories were very instructive, and I was a regular listener to her charming, religious, and romantic tales, of which she had a large-store. My father was a very religious man, and gave me moral and religious instruction. His idea was to make me a Scholar.
At 5, at the instance of friends interested in my welfare, I was sent to the village school, and with the help I got from my mother at home, I made rapid progress in my studies, and passed the first two classes in one year. Our master was very strict, and we were awfully afraid of him. After passing the Primary Examination, in which I qualified for a scholarship, I joined the Central Model High School at Lahore. I lived with my aunt, who was a widow.
[the_ad id=”17141″]She treated me very kindly, and looked after me like a mother. The teachers were very kind to me, and took a great deal of interest in me. I was a very regular student, and they liked me.
I studied there till I passed my Matriculation with credit in the first division, but as ill-luck would have it, my father died at this stage, leaving me a helpless orphan. What was worse, I fell ill, and at one time it seemed as if I were suffering from consumption.
My mother was greatly disappointed, but she was a woman of strong will, and without communicating her inner feelings to me, she comforted me in every way, and with her scanty earnings supported me, and nursed me during my sickness. I lost one year, but, thank God, I recovered.
My mother was now unwilling to send me to a college at Lahore on account of the serious illness, from which I had suffered. She, therefore, advised me to start some business. I have, with the little capital I have been able to get, set up a stationer’s shop, from which I am able to make a decent living, and we live happily together, my mother and I.