story of a lifetime

I was born in a poor family. Below average. I was a topper in my class. Always secured 1st position. Always got medals and always was the prominent one in school.

But I was beaten up badly almost everyday by my family members mainly because my thoughts were different from them. My actions were not exactly the same, they were expecting.

My Father holds the top rank in beating me.

Second award goes to my older brother.

Third to uncle and sometimes Mother also used to contribute to this religious deed. (She’s no more among us. May her soul rest in peace)

• I was beaten up very harshly when I got 9/10 marks and not 10/10.
• I was beaten up if I played with school mates for 10–15 minutes and came home late.
• I was beaten up if I wore my brother’s T-shirt.
• I was beaten up if I used 2/3 of my pencil during writing homework and almost got killed if I lost my pencil in school.
• I was beaten up if somehow my only 2 years old jacket’s zip broke out.
• Even got my bones screwed up because I don’t like to eat cauliflower. Sometimes, I was sent very close to death.

I was beaten up harshly, leaving black and blue spots over the back and legs and wherever possible for a week or two. Sometimes, I was hanged down from the ceiling with my legs tied upwards and head hanging downwards.

The day, I wasn’t beaten up, I felt strange.

Consequences:

• I started stealing pencils of my classmates in school, because I knew, if I’ll return home with a small pencil or without it, I will be laid down again. Sometimes, money as well, if I could, so that, I could buy things when there’s a danger of getting beaten up.
• I started telling lies to father and family just to save my ass from getting beaten.
• I started thinking all possible (fake) ways , just not to get beaten up.

Dear Father!

“please believe me it’s really very painful, when a 40 years old man hits 6–7 years old child with his full force”.

I started underperforming in studies and received more severe punishments. I lost my confidence and started living a lonely life.

One day, I got nervous break-down and lost consciousness for a few days. Then another nervous attack and I was on bed for 2+ years. I got severe ill and discontinued my studies.

I tried suicide twice. Both times life won the game and death failed.

But my life was never the same.

I was fed-up of above mentioned life. Took my 10 class certificate and left the home at the age of 16. I went to Kyrgyzstan.

Incident 2:

I started doing whatever I could to live my life. Studied the “Kyrgyz” language. Got admission in college. Used to live in a hostel, where I washed clothes of my fellows and got paid a little bit. Cooked food for them, cleaned their rooms.

I was homeless and then sometimes I managed to pay my hostel and then again homeless and then again found some place and this continued.

After college, I got casual admission in Osh Technological University (evening classes - only on weekends). The financial situation was never good, but I never bothered to ask my family for help.

Worked my ass off, gave tuitions, cleaned rooms and did whatever I could.

I was working some 16 hours a day.

I saved some money. Bought 3 used computers and opened my first business (Internet Cafe) on July 15, 2008. In 2008–9, it was a demanded business there.

It went successful. I bought another computer and printers on October 22, 2008 and started selling discs and installed windows and drivers.

I was getting damn rich. Started wearing new good clothes. Started living alone in a nice rented apartment. I paid my academic dues. I ate to my full. I never had such a sexy life-style. I started sending some money back to my parents as well.

I forgot my past and was enjoying life to maximum.

Turning point:

All of a sudden, a civil war broke out between Kyrgyz and Uzbek people on June 6, 2010. A lot of bloodshed, a lot of killing, a lot of shops were burnt and robbed.

It was June 9, 2010 and I was standing in my window on 4th floor and was looking how people stole my computers and printers and furniture and then burnt the remaining, what they couldn’t take away.

The war stopped after a few days. The city was burnt to ashes. Local people left the city and I was again left with no money, no food and no signs of hope from anywhere.

The life almost stopped.

Incident 3:

After the war, a lot of refugee organisations such as Danish Council, UNHCR, ACTED entered the city.

After a lot of rejections and disappointments, I finally started working as (English-Kyrgyz) translator at ACTED. I started earning money again. Damn! I had money. I could eat to my full again. And you won’t believe, I again started to rent an apartment.

I got promoted from translator to project coordinator. I had to wait 2.5 more years to get my diploma. The life was again becoming interesting and I started to forget my losses in war.

I again started to save up some money. After a year, I decided to start something of my own again.

Those days, a lot of guys were involved in importing automobiles from Japan to Central Asia.

I decided to try my luck as well.

On May 20, 2011, I ordered 1 car in a container of 4 cars with friends. It arrived in 40 days. I sold it and earned 300USD profit. I ordered again and earned 500 USD more. After 5–6 months, I had handsome money.

I decided to order my own container. It arrived, I sold all of the cars. and ordered again.

I rented a place to make it a showroom for cars. Below are the pictures of my then auto-salon

I was damn rich in my 22. I sent money to parents, helped my friends. I was enjoying my life to its full.

Turning point:

My business rose to its peak in a period of 1.5 years. And it was getting bigger and bigger. My competitors didn’t like it at all. They started threatening me.

They decided to snatch away everything. Some guys had friends in Police. They prepared fake documents and made a trap for me. They used fake signatures.

Local guys can do anything there. Police is the biggest mafia. They showed in a week that all those cars are stolen. The total business is fake and illegal.

The police took a few cars from the salon without any authority. They documented them with their names. and demanded 20000 USD just as a gift, which obviously, I couldn’t give them. The next day, all my cars were removed from there. The doors and windows of salon were broken down. The documents were stolen.

I was nobody again. No business, no job. I was really broken down.

Incident 4:

I had some money left in my account. I migrated from my University to Moscow. I decided to leave Kyrgyzstan. I moved to Moscow. Started learning Russian. Started looking for jobs but nothing helped. I had some friends from Kyrgyzstan who also moved here because of war. They helped in low paying odd jobs.

I finished my university.

I like Russia very much. I speak Russian fluently. I had spent some happiest days of life there.

I started working for European Commission, “TEMPUS”. It was doing research in GIS. I performed well. I was invited to Salzburg, Austria for a conference.

The scientists and researchers from Canada, EU, Russia and Central Asia attended the conference. I really performed well there.

Dr. Josef Strobl - Director of GIS Centre Salzburg and European Commission Coordinator for Central Asian Projects. (This great man taught me a lot of professional things. Tons of Respect for him).

I was appointed as a Project Contact person of TEMPUS_GEM project for OshTU (at the same university in Kyrgyzstan, where I once used to study and clean classrooms in evening as a part-time job).

It was a big project with a total budget of 100K+ Euros. I performed as expected.

I received my first European visa and a few thousand euros as travel & daily allowance.

I liked the Salzburg and its people. Everything organised. Beautiful, clean.

I started applying for further studies everywhere. but was not selected in Austria.

Josef Strobl helped me in getting admission in my PhD at the University of Salzburg. But unfortunately, I couldn’t provide the proof financial funds to carry out my research there and hence, my application was turned down. (still a lot of respect for Josef).

Then, I moved to Germany. Started learning German Language. Applied to almost every university. Unfortunately, didn’t qualify. But learnt German well.

Actually, these universities demanded a financial support proof, which I obviously didn’t have.

Then, I moved to Italia. Did whatever, I could. But no success at all.

Tried to find jobs. No success.

No money.

Disappointed. Broken. Absolutely no idea, what to do next.

Wanted to study, but no money. wanted to work, but no proper documents.

Go back to Russia? No future. Go Back Home - ? No way!

I, then, moved to Poland. Applied for admission.

Damn! I got selected. Got selected after almost 100+ rejections.

(I lived in Europe on a maximum budget of 2 Euros/Day)

I met my Russian friend, Pawel Fedotov, in Warsaw. He has almost the same story of life. We were best friends in Russia.

We decided to do something in Warsaw. He had some savings. We decided to register our import/export company. We were importing automobile spare parts from Japan to Warsaw and Russia. And exporting some stuff from Warsaw to Moscow at a very small scale.

Once, Pawel met with some serious guys in Moscow. They made serious orders. We did our best to provide everything. Yes, we did it. After all, I had experience. This deal gave us good profit.

Those clients introduced us to other serious people in Russia. These people are billionaires. They asked us to find yachts for them in Gdańsk, Poland. We found. Yachts were veeery expensive and we got 5% from the deal. We never had such a lot of money.

I started sending money back to my father. And paid my dues here in Warsaw. Bought Mercedes S320.

I was doing well at academia as well. Got publications. Did some quality research. I was invited to United States for research. I performed very well there.

Americans are awesome people. Very intelligent. Cooperative. Hardworking.

They have built their country in an outstanding manner. May they all stay blessed!

Prof. Dr. Andrzej Osiadacz is my PhD supervisor. He’s my best friend as well. He helped me in everything. The studies were going very very well. So was our business.

I started learning Microeconomics and Management at Warsaw School of Economics in evening classes to promote our business more professionally.

Turning Point:

Pawel and I, made very serious money. We made a grand business plan. We flew to South Africa. Met with some serious Russian Businessmen there. They were interested in doing business with us.

They had a leather business in Cape town. They wanted to open a tannery in Russia. So, we (Pawel & Me) decided to build a Tannery in Krasnoyarsk (the city, where Pawel was born).

Pawel opened his bank account in Sberbank. We transferred all of our money to Russia to his account. (because, I needed a lot more documentation, so decided to go through a single account).

After 2 days, we transferred everything to Russia. Pawel, had a car accident near Smolensk. He got killed on the spot.

I lost my best friend. He was more like a brother to me. But he got killed on February 16, 2016. I lost everything again.(This is Pawel- May his soul rest in peace)

I tried a lot to receive money from bank. Nobody gave a single penny, because everything was documented on Pawel’s name.

I sold my Mercedes and spent everything in multiple visits to Moscow trying to receive money. Nothing worked.

Standard of life started falling down. It went further down and more down.

When nothing worked, I started looking for jobs. But in-vain.

One day, Police came to my apartment in Warsaw. They locked me up for 3 days. Then, I came to know that my name was included in the list of foreigners whose stay on Schengen territory was prohibited.

But what for?? They didn’t tell me anything and cancelled my residence permit and gave a paper stating that I’ve to leave Poland within 40 days otherwise Border Security Police will deport me.

I had to hire a lawyer, who, after a few weeks, discovered that it was a mistake made by the Polish Intelligence. My name was confused with someone else’s name and after a court trial of 7–8 weeks, it was removed from the list.

Thanks to Mr. Dariusz Kostyra (my lawyer). He really did a great job!

I lost money in this case. Nothing left to live with.

I was constantly receiving calls from bank, because my account went to -200 PLN and interest was increasing by every month.

I received a letter from Fitness centre, according to the agreement, I had to pay subscription even if I was not visiting the centre. The surcharge was increasing gradually.

I had to walk 6 km to attend lectures at university and back 6. I couldn’t afford a 0,75USD ticket.

I finally got a warning notice from the university stating that my academic dues need to be paid within 2 weeks, otherwise, I won’t be allowed to defend my thesis.

The same day, owner of my apartment asked me to move out, because I had not paid the rent last month.

Again homeless!

I moved my stuff to the garage, which, once, I used to rent for Mercedes.

I used to carry a few pieces of bread in my rucksack, ate them, drank water and again started working in the lab.

I lost my fit and jacked body.

My supervisor helped in paying my academic dues. I was allowed to defend my doctorate. I did well. I passed all stages. On November 15, 2017, I was invited to receive my PhD Diploma. but I had nothing to wear according to the ceremony.

I had no money to visit a barber shop to get my haircut. So, I used my trimmer to cut my hair at home. It turned out to be very horrible and people passed comments over my cutting style, the next day.

I had to walk 7 km to attend the convocation and back 7. I received my Diploma, listened some beautiful words about me. But didn’t know, should I cry or laugh?

Prof. Andrzej realised this awkward moment and invited me to lunch. (Hats off).

(Prof. Andrzej Osiadacz - an outstanding researcher & nice human being.

He can make the best version of everyone).

I have started some stuff as a freelancer consultant. Coaching and recruiting staff for some companies to keep the things running.

I started making some money. Repaid my interests and surcharges for bank and elsewhere. I joined fitness centre again. Getting back my boxing skills.

I am attending interviews now at different companies. Hopefully, will land a good position.

I’ve a business plan (in my mind yet) to launch a new start-up (a petroleum company), may be, I will go for this, the next year.

First I need to fully regain my confidence and a small capital for kick-up.

Lessons learnt:

• Life will not always be same;
• Never lose heart, sooner or later you will win;
• Life is never fair and it’s never easy;
• Problem never comes alone;
• Yes, homeless people can also do well and believe me they can also be successful;
• Never believe, when people say that you are a loser;
• If you lost everything, still keep your hopes high - after all you are still alive;
• Keep trying, even when you know there’s less than 1% chance, still keep trying, you never know;
• Trust only 1 person in life - that one person is you and only you;
• Those, who feel broken today, My friends! don’t give up! You are really very close to success;
• People will start missing you, when they see that you are happy without them;
• People will never remember, what wrong they have done to you and will always find a reason to say that you don’t care enough for them;
• Those who always hated you, opposed you and regarded you as a garbage, will start repeating thousand times a day that you are awesome. They always believed in you. They only wish to see you once again and they can’t live without you.

This is my whole life story, thus all happened to me in the past, i still regret some decisions i had made.