The document summarizes P C Mustafa's childhood growing up in the remote village of Chennalode in Wayanad, India. He had to walk 4 km to attend high school after primary school and most kids dropped out after primary. He failed 6th grade as he preferred helping his father to studying. A teacher, Mathew Sir, helped him and he became the top student in 7th grade. He continued doing well and went to college in Kozhikode, where he stayed in a charity hostel and faced humiliation from other students but persevered for the sake of his education.

1. P C Mustafa
Childhood in Wayanad
•I grew up in a small village called Chennalode near
Kalpatta in Wayanad.
•The village was so remote that we had only a
primary school. It had no roads or electricity. We had
to walk at least four kilometers to go to high school
so most of the kids dropped out after primary
school.
•My father Ahmed stopped studying after Class 4
and worked as a coolie on a coffee plantation. My
mother Fatima never went to school.
I am the eldest and I have three younger sisters.

2. Failing in Class 6
• I was not interested in studies. After school
every day, and on weekends, I preferred
helping my father, a daily wage worker,
instead of doing homework or studying.
• There was no question of opening the books
at night as there was no electricity at home,
only kerosene lamps.
• Though I was below average in all other
subjects, I was good at mathematics. After I
failed in Class 6 I lost interest in going to
school.

3. From a failure to a topper
• Sir’s help worked. I came first in the Class 7,
surprising all the teachers. There was no
looking back after that.
• I stood first in the school in Class 10.
• In those days, I had only one ambition: I
wanted to be a maths teacher like Mathew Sir.
He was my role model.

4. From a village to a city
• Till I completed Class 10, I had not stepped out of Wayanad. For college
(junior college was known as pre-degree those days), I had to go to
Kozhikode (Calicut). My father didn’t have a problem but didn’t have any
money to fund my education.
• I got admission at the Farooq College in Kozhikode where my father’s
friend, who had suggested I study further, arranged for a free meal scheme
in the college charity hostel. I was one of the 15 students who were offered
free stay and food, as we could not afford to pay.
• There were four hostels in the college and we had to go to different hostels
for breakfast, lunch and dinner as we were on charity.
• Naturally, other students looked at us with disdain. That upset me. It was
like we were eating somebody else’s food. Some students made fun of us. It
was not a pleasant experience, but I had to swallow the humiliation for the
sake of my education.

5. • Looking back, I feel the college management did a
great job by taking care of poor students like us.
• Coming from a village, I was very weak in English.
It was a big handicap in college where all the
lectures were in English. A good friend of mine
used to translate everything for my benefit. I also
worked extremely hard and felt even more
motivated when I scored good marks.