“Where is your Pakistan Studies book?” the teacher asked angrily. It was the third time in the week that the teacher had asked Ali to bring his book and this time around, it was a bit difficult for him to come up with an excuse as he could feel how serious his teacher was.

Even after making many attempts to justify his carelessness, Ali failed to convince his teacher that he didn’t follow the timetable and so couldn’t bring it in the class. Surely, whatever Ali managed to say was in broken sentences and could hardly be called English.

“What are you saying? Say it with me, ‘I will bring it tomorrow’,” the teacher asked him to repeat his words when Ali failed to reply properly. The whole class laughed mercilessly at his inability to respond to a simple question.

That moment turned out to be very embarrassing for him. He couldn’t help himself to overcome the situation he found himself in. Everyone was looking at him in a way as if he had committed an unforgivable crime.

Even after making many attempts to justify his carelessness, Ali failed to convince his teacher that he didn’t follow the timetable and so couldn’t bring it in the class. Surely, whatever Ali managed to say was in broken sentences and could hardly be called English

The teachers usually never expected much from Ali. How could they? He was always a backbencher with poor focus on the lectures in the class. After school, he would spend most of his time playing cricket with the rowdy boys of his town. His parents would often scold him to give time to studies, which he mostly avoided. As he was a below average student, not many boys tried to befriend him.

That day, after school, Ali went straight to his room without talking to anyone in the house. He cried a lot over what had happened earlier in the class.

“Why can’t I speak in English, why I am not good in studies?” Ali thought and cried. He kept thinking of various possible solutions that he could follow and change his life.

Suddenly, something came in his mind. It was the perfect day for him to pledge that he would not waste his time on cricket with those undisciplined boys of the neighbourhood, but he would study and make use of his time.

“Baba, can I have an English newspaper to read daily?” Ali asked without letting his father know how depressed he was.

“What? Are you serious? Am I dreaming?” his father asked.

“Yes, Baba! I am serious,” he assured his dad.

His father was still not convinced, but he subscribed to an English newspaper. At first, Ali struggled to understand most of the words while reading the newspaper, but he tried hard to look up the meaning of the words and understand as many as possible.

Speaking English with himself in front of the mirror became the new habit of Ali which he believed would help to boost his confidence. He studied his course books and did thte homework properly.

It took not more than four months for Ali to feel confident about his skills and improve his tests results. The teachers became happy with him. Moreover, he could now easily respond in English to any question.

Within two years, Ali showed major progress and started writing blogs for websites. He now believes that those who laughed at him indirectly encouraged him towards changing himself and towards working on his weak areas.

Last, but not the least, his language skills soon emerged as a source of income for him as well. All his struggle, hard work and persistence paid off. So never quit, not even when you have reached your desired destination.

Published in Dawn, Young World, May 27th, 2017