‘Writing against the odds’, the panel discussion between Amin Sheikh, a street child-turned-entrepreneur, and Thalassemia and cancer survivor Chandan Das at day two of the Hyderabad Literary Festival gave various insights into their life.
At the talk, Amin spoke about his struggles he had faced before and after he ran away from home at the age of five. “My life has come out of garbage, I had no proper education. I studied till class VII, but life taught me many lessons. One is that you have to be good from inside because make up can’t stay for long,” says Amin.
Both Amin and Chandan have one thing in common — passion for penning down their thoughts. Amin had wrtten his autobiography Life is Life, I am Because of You, whereas, Chandan had penned his emotions through verse.
“I had a troubled childhood due to my health. I was 11 months old when I was diagnosed with cancer. Though I had no physical strength of a normal kid, my friends and cricket helped me break the shell,” shares Chandan.
Amin spoke about how his autobiography shaped up after so many hiccups. “I started off as a tour guide in Mumbai. But writing and publishing is a different ball game. I went to different publishers to only get denied. But I didn’t lose heart. I self published it and sold the book at traffic signals. Soon, I sold 13,000 copies in four-and-a-half years,” he says.
Now, Amin ha salso opened his dream library cafe, Bombay to Barcelona. “I want people to serve cutting chai to espresso under one roof,” he says.
