Chapter 1 – Born in Dust...The first sound Sanjay remembered was not laughter, nor the soft voice of a was the creak of his father’s bicycle chain, rusty and tired, carrying sacks of wheat down a broken road.Sanjay was born in a small town on the edge of Pakistan, where the streets were narrow, the houses leaned on each other like tired men, and dust hung in the air so thick that even the brightest afternoons felt dim. His family’s home was a single room made of bricks that never saw paint. The roof leaked in the rains, and ...Read More

Chapter 2 – Hunger in His Eyes...The nights in Sanjay’s town were never quiet. Even after the market shut and the lanterns faded, echoes of barking dogs, rattling bicycle chains, and coughing neighbors slipped through the thin brick walls. But for Sanjay, the loudest sound was always the growl in his stomach.He lay on the rough cot beside his younger sister, Meera. Her breathing was slow and peaceful, her lips shining faintly from the oil their mother had rubbed to keep them from cracking in the winter air. Sanjay’s own lips were dry. His stomach twisted, reminding him that ...Read More

Chapter 3 – A World Against Him...The sky was gray that morning, heavy with the smell of rain. Sanjay quickly down the street, his worn sandals splashing in the puddles left from the night’s storm. In his hand he carried a small cloth bag, carefully tied at the top. Inside were the coins he had saved for months—his treasure, his proof that he was ready to take a step bigger than carrying bags at the bus stand.He had heard about a shopkeeper who wanted a helper to manage a small stall of secondhand goods. For Sanjay, this was more ...Read More

Chapter 4 – The First Risk...The morning sun rose pale and tired, just like the town. Sanjay sat on narrow doorstep of his house, his knees drawn up to his chest, staring at the handful of coins spread out on the ground before him. Thirty-six rupees. His whole fortune. His whole life.He had tried selling pens, tried shouting in the market, tried smiling until his cheeks hurt—but the world had laughed. And yet, something inside him refused to die.That something spoke to him now, as if whispering in his ear:“If you don’t take a risk, you’ll remain here forever.”But ...Read More

Chapter 5 – Failure Tastes Bitter....The street outside the school had begun to feel like Sanjay’s kingdom. For three straight, he stood there each morning and afternoon, calling out his lines with the same steady voice:“Good pens, strong notebooks, best price!”At first people had laughed. Now, they bought. Students waved at him, some even called him Pen-wala Bhaiya. Every evening he returned home with jingling coins, his face brighter than the setting sun.His mother smiled more these days. His sister Meera bragged to her friends. Even his father, though silent, no longer scolded him.Sanjay began to dream bigger. If ...Read More

Chapter 6 – Alone in the Dark...The coins no longer jingled in his pocket. His little cloth bag lay folded in the corner of the room like a dead bird.Days passed. Sanjay no longer went to the school gates. He couldn’t bear the laughter of the children, the whispers behind his back. Cheater… liar… fool. The words followed him even in his dreams.His mother still cooked the same thin rotis, but she spoke less. Even Meera, his sister, avoided his eyes. The small light he had brought into the house was gone, leaving behind only silence.One evening, Sanjay wandered ...Read More

Chapter 7 – The Spark Returns...The nights had grown colder. The small room where Sanjay’s family lived carried the of dampness, the cracked walls letting in whispers of the wind. He often sat alone on the roof, his knees pulled close to his chest, watching the sky. The stars above were countless, glittering silently, but to him they felt like strangers—distant, unreachable. Each star mocked him, reminding him how far away he was from any kind of light.The collapse of his first small stall had broken something inside him. His neighbors had called him foolish, Karim and his men ...Read More