Sunny Kumar Shaw, 20 years old, Management Step, LPC Howrah, Kolkata, India
Working in the family grocery shop on Andul Road, Howrah.
Hello everybody,
My name is Sunny Kumar Shaw. I am in Management Step in Howrah Program 1. My father's name is Mithilesh Shaw. My mother's name is Ruby Shaw. I have five family members. I live in Howrah Bakultala-9. My education level is 12th pass. 9 months ago I worked only in my shop. The shop was my best friend. Because without my work in this shop my education as “professional experience” is not complete, according to me. My father, my mother and my brother supported me. When I was going to school, my mother and my brother were taking care of the shop. Then, on the way back home from school, I was buying goods for the shop. However, I was pressured to quit studies when I passed12th. After leaving my studies then I started working in my shop. But I didn't feel good. At the same time, my best friend Rohit told me about LP4Y. Then I told my Mom and Dad that for free in LP4Y I could attend English training, computer training and improve my professional behavior.
But even at that time my mother and father refused. Then I spoke to Rohit and he told me the timing. He said that the class would run from 9:00 am to 11:am (it was the beginning of the Howrah program) but still, my parents were refusing. But I insisted since I knew I would learn something new. I finally convinced them and I managed to work in my shop before and after LP4Y. In the beginning, we learned How to introduce ourselves and English grammar and also How to mobilize people to join the team. After these 2 hours, l used to work in the shop. But our coaches said that this will shift to 4hours per day. That was not possible for me. Then I stopped going to the center for a few days. Rohit was told that training is getting very good during these 4 hours. I therefore started to explain again to my parents that it was good for me. After convincing them, I reorganized all my life: At 7:00 am I used to open my shop, then used to go to the Center at 9:00. At that time from 9:00 to 11:00, my mother used to manage the shop.
From 11:00 to 1:00 my younger brother was taking care of customers. Then I used to come and maintain my shop. As expected, our coaches said the training will be from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. Which was not possible for me. Still, I tried. Because I saw the improvement that happened in my life in a short amount of time. And I continued. During these 9 months, the biggest job I did was managing my time. If you know how to maintain your time then you can move forward a lot in your life. Also, the training and pedagogy have been so diverse during my 9 months training: we also learned to make society aware, on world clean day we cleaned our city for example, we gave important roles to girls in LP4Y and made sure they are respected. Today we are making our society aware, to protect everyone from the COVID-19. We have displayed guidelines in Hindi and Bengali on our shop front window to be aware of hygiene measures to adopt.
Thank you.