Microsoft Techie Recalls Father Selling Mother's Gold Bangles To Pay Rs 15,000 College Fee

A Microsoft software engineer has shared an emotional account of how his father sold his mother's jewellery to pay his college fees, a sacrifice that, years later, paved the way for him to land a job earning Rs 1.9 crore annually. In a LinkedIn post, Manu Agarwal, a senior software engineer at Microsoft, said his family found it difficult to arrange even the ₹15,000 required for each semester of his Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) course.

"My father sold my mother's jewellery to pay my BCA fees. Rs 15,000 per semester. That's all it cost. But we didn't have it," he wrote in the post. Agarwal recalled watching his mother quietly hand over her gold bangles. "She didn't cry. She just looked at me. I didn't sleep that night," he added. 

Years later, while working at Microsoft's Seattle office, Agarwal said he was earning Rs 1.9 crore a year. He remembered calling his mother and telling her she could buy back any jewellery she wanted.

"She said, 'Beta, tere aane se sab wapas aa gaya (Son, you came and I got back everything),'” he wrote, adding, "Some debts aren't financial." He dedicated the post to others whose families made sacrifices for their education, writing, "If you're from a family that sacrificed for your education, this one's for you."

See the post here:

According to his LinkedIn profile, Agarwal started his career as a summer intern at Microsoft in Hyderabad in 2016. He also interned at GE Healthcare in Bengaluru before joining Microsoft full-time as a Software Development Engineer in 2017. He later moved to Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, office, where he worked until 2020. After spending more than two years at Google in Bengaluru, he rejoined Microsoft in Bengaluru in 2025 as a senior software engineer.

The post struck a chord with LinkedIn users, many of whom praised Agarwal's journey from financial hardship to working at two of the world's biggest technology companies. Others shared similar stories of the sacrifices their own families made to support their education.

One user wrote, "This hits incredibly close to home. Behind so many corporate badges and 'success stories' are parents who quietly sacrificed their own comfort and security just to give us a starting line. We can never truly repay them, but we can make damn sure their sacrifices weren't in vain. Truly, some debts aren't financial."

Another commented, "This is what real success looks like ,the struggles of father and mother, the pressure of a middle-class life, and still choosing to rise. We may have limitations, but we also have the mindset to overcome for our family and for a bigger future. Past problems aren't weaknesses they are the fuel that builds extraordinary outcomes. Respect for this journey."