Sunil Singh has faced tough times in his childhood having lived 8 years at an orphanage. He started learning martial arts at a young age and is now a full-time martial arts instructor. He dreams to start his own martial arts school in which he will teach all the underprivileged kids for free. Here’s his inspirational and extraordinary story……
Sunil Singh, a resident of Kailali district of Eastern Nepal came to Mumbai with his parents when he was a child. His father was a security manager in a well-known company. He had got a good flat from the company. There was a luxurious life, but a catastrophic stage occurred in his life that changed everything.
His mother died when he was three years old. After that his father went into depression. He sent him to the orphanage on the pretext of getting him enrolled in a boarding school and the struggle continued for uncountable days and nights.
While sharing his journey Sunil Singh said, ” I don’t know when and how my mother died….I don’t even remember her face. I just remember that a woman used to live with me and suddenly she went somewhere. What more could a 3-year-old understand than this. It was later revealed that the woman was my mother.”
“After my mother’s demise, my father left his job. I could not even take care of myself at that time. One day my aunt asked my father to send me to the orphanage. My father got me admitted to an orphanage named St. Catherine. I was four years old then. He said that it is a boarding school and from today you have to stay here. It’ll be a lot of fun. I will keep coming to see you too”, Sunil recalled.
“For many days I waited for my father to come to meet him, but he did not come”,he said.
“Big playground, lots of snacks to eat, nice clothes, comfortable bed, cute little school bag, new uniform….There was a different life in that orphanage. Parents’ meetings used to be held on Sundays. Everyone’s mother or father or relatives used to come to meet the children. They used to bring home cooked food for their children. I used to feel very strange why no one came to meet me. My father never came to meet me. Gradually, I understood that my mother is not there and my father does not care for me. Whether I like it here or not, there was no other option”, Sunil explained.
When he was 8 years old, he started focusing on sports. He started dreaming of becoming an athlete.
He left the orphanage because of some disputes with the management and went to the slum behind Bandra Band Stand. There, a hut was available on rent for Rs 200 a month.
To pay the rent of the hut, Sunil started delivering milk. Waking up at three o’clock in the morning, he used to go from house to house to give milk. It used to get 1500 rupees a month. In this way a year passed and he completed his matriculation from an open school.
Sunil said, “I could not understand what to do next. Then I decided to go back to the orphanage. After many requests, they agreed to keep me. They asked me for a written note explaining why I wanted to stay here. I gave in writing that there is no food like this anywhere, there are excellent beds to sleep in and beautiful bathrooms to take a bath. That’s how I came back to the orphanage. Thereafter, I started learning martial arts.”
“A renowned person was the sponsor of our orphanage. He instructed the orphanage administration that the children should be taught Capoeira (Brazilian martial art, which is also the national sport there). After this a foreign coach was appointed for this. I was the tallest there, so the teacher said that you will be in the forefront and lead. That’s where the second part of my life started”, Sunil explained further.
“6 children including me were selected from the orphanage. Soon I got the Green Belt. One day a teacher from Paris came to visit there. He told me will you go to Paris? I thought he was kidding…….”, recalled Sunil.
“After about 6 months, I got a call that I have to visit Paris and all the arrangements will be made by the sponsors. As soon as I went to Paris I asked my sponsor why he did this to me. He told me that his story is also similar to mine. That’s why they help the children of the slum area.”
I got trained in Capoeira. After returning to India Sunil started teaching Capoeira in his orphanage. But after some days Sunil came to know that they were collecting money after hearing his story of being an orphan. He parted ways with him immediately and moved to Brazil for advanced training.
After returning to India, Sunil approached various schools and started teaching Capoeira to handicapped children and slum children.
While sharing his ultimate goal with sparkling eyes Sunil said, “I am working out a plan to make Capoeira a part of the school curriculum because as Capoeira changed my life, I want the same change to be reflected in other kids like me.”