A selection between a sickle and a pen. That is what Santosh Kumar Patel, a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) rank officer, was confronted with whereas rising up. His household lived in poverty within the Devgaon village of Madhya Pradesh with meagre assets.
A sq. meal was robust to come back by. “On good days we ate rice, the remainder of the times we ate solely daliya (damaged wheat). Generally, after we didn’t have wheat, we ate jowar (sorghum) rotis and borrowed wheat rotis from our pals at college,” the 31-year-old recollects in a dialog with The Higher India.
Regardless of witnessing poverty from a younger age, Santosh learnt the worth of laborious work from his father, a mason, and his mom, a farm labourer. He would usually pitch in, serving to his father carry bricks at development websites, and helping his mom within the fields. Whereas the couple was nervous about his security, their son was nervous about theirs.
“In summers, he (my father) constructed wells within the village. Since it’s a dangerous job, only a few masons did it. At occasions, rocks would fall on him when he can be contained in the nicely. Fortunately, it by no means hit him on the top however solely on the legs and arms,” he recollects.
Decided to provide their son a greater future, his dad and mom inspired him to concentrate on his research.
Perseverance and dedication guided his method as he studied beneath kerosene lamps and labored laborious to high his Class 10. Santosh pursued his engineering research earlier than deciding to be a part of the police drive. After 15 months of intense preparation, he cleared the examination in July 2017 with the twenty second rank. Lastly, in 2018, he joined the police drive.
“I aspire to proceed serving the general public and higher the picture of the police; solely criminals ought to worry the police. In my investigations, I be sure that harmless persons are by no means put behind bars,” says Santosh, who selected the pen.
Edited by Khushi Arora
