My name is Manoj Ramesh Medwal and I was born and brought up in Mumbai. My parents both come from Delhi and I have one elder brother and one younger one. We live together with my mum. My elder brother is married and has two wonderful children. I’m really proud to be a nice uncle. We live in Mahalaxmi, an area in the South of Mumbai, not too far from Dhobi Ghat, the famous open-air laundry place of the city. This is my story…
I went to high school Mumbai until the 8th grade, then I had to stop because my family couldnāt afford it anymore as that was a private school. I had to start working with my father and brother to support the whole family. I was only 16 years old, so it was a bit of a problem to work as I was under age. However, I found a job as a sweeper in one of the city towers where I had to clean the whole building and whilst I was there I also found many other small jobs for housekeeping in the various apartments.
One day while going home I met a friend of mine, Dinesh. He was working for a social business and really enjoyed his job and so he proposed me to get introduced to Reality Tours and Travel. I took my interview and got the job offered, so I started my training.
I have now been working as a respectful tour guide for 5 and half years with Reality Tours and Travel. I like being a tour guide as the job gives me the opportunity to meet different people from all over the world who work in diverse professions.
At the same time, I was a quite interested in the career of one of my friends in the neighbourhood who was a hairdresser. He was busy working but also enjoyed his job. After talking to him and looking more into hairdressing, I found this to be a passion of mine, so I decided to start studying for it. This was not an easy thing for me as it was expensive to take the course and I had to start saving for that. However, while I continued to work as a tour guide for Reality Tours and Travel I managed to save for the course fee and started my hairdressing course. I got full support during my studies from the Reality Group and I successfully finished my course in 2016. Now, as well as being a tour guide, I am also a freelance hairdresser and one day I want to go to London to work for 2 to 4 years or more. Then the dream I want to fulfil is my motherās dream: seeing me as a successful hairdresser and have a happy life. Letās see what happens…we never know where the luck takes you around!
