Mr. M. R Warang is a 66-year-old young man! Born in a village near the border of Maharashtra and Goa, this man is nothing but full of inspiration. The struggle began for him very early when he lost his parents and was raised by his uncle. It so happened that Mr. Warang had to shift to Mumbai along with his uncle and there he was enrolled in the 8th standard of an English medium school, which just added to his existing struggle. Compared to the school in his village where one teacher was teaching all 7 subjects and in the name of English all that was taught was alphabets, here in Mumbai he was to learn all subjects in English with only knowledge of alphabets! That is some difficult situation to be in.
“ The difference was so extreme, I was finding it really difficult to understand the language as all I knew was basic alphabets. All that was making my life miserably wrong. I was unable to cope up with that so I shifted to Marathi medium. But I had a desire to learn the language.”
With this urge and strong desire to make a difference in his life. Major issue Mr. Warang faced was paying coaching fee for English tuition, for that this diligent man started distributing newspaper early morning for which he was paid 3 rupees. His coaching fee was 2 rupees and the remaining 1 rupee was his contribution at home. This hard work definitely paid off, Mr. Warang scored the highest marks in the subject he dreaded the most, he stood first in English at his school and won a cash prize of 30 rupees. This unstoppable man then joined Dahanukar College of commerce in Mumbai and completed his graduation in B.com along side of his graduation he had a part time job and he would also attend lectures at NM College Mumbai whenever he got free time since there were no restrictions then to enter any college on basis of just an ID card.
A new, improved and better phase started for Mr. Warang when he got a job in one of India’s Nava Ratna companies today, ONGC. He had a smooth life then, he also completed CA,ICWA during this period. He had a tremendous work life in ONGC and retired as a Chief Manager.
But post-retirement life has been way more adventurous for Mr. Warang and this is what he shares, “ My new Life began post-retirement since I had all the time in the world for me. At the age of 50, I learned how to swim that time was still working ,posted in Assam. Today my day does not start if I don’t go for swimming , I have learned rifle shooting since I believe the brain needs exercise too! I am very fond of exploring new places and hence I always go for trekking I have explored almost all the places within Maharashtra. Because of a friend who was a colleague of mine in ONGC, I have developed fondness for Ghazals and Poems.”
How is that for a second innings? Well, that’s just not it! Mr. Warang currently has his own social venture where he is helping society by educating and developing skills of those who have limited education. He has started an institution which gives diploma certification in Cooperative Society Management. They are a team of four people and till date they have trained 200+ people.
“We should not feel that we are of no use, we all have our own skill set which we must use to repay the society.” , these wise words and Mr. Warang’s story are something that fills us with never give up attitude. Let’s all learn from this man how hard work and patience get you what you want!
