In July 2007, Teg surprised everyone when he successfully completed MA English. It was not only a fight against his fading memory but it was also a challenge to pass the exam while those around him, even members of his family, thought it was a futile attempt on his part to fulfill his childhood dream of doing a post-graduation in English.

Over the years, much has changed in Teg's life, but what has still not changed is his determination to further his studies and gather more knowledge and degrees. Even today, when Teg's business is running into huge losses due to recession, his determination to beat all odds in life is evident in his reply when asked how he is doing these days. He smiles and says, "Chardian Kalan hai ji (I am in high spirits)"

Teg had always wanted to master the language ever since he was in school when his teacher had once reprimanded him for spelling a word incorrectly, telling him that he could only be an ironsmith and join his father's business and not be a master in English. In spite of all the odds, he harboured the dream deep in his heart and kept nourishing it throughout many decades of his life.

Today, he has two post-graduation degrees under his belt, MA Punjabi and MA English and is in the process of completing the third degree. He is presently pursuing his third post graduation, this time MA in Sikh Studies and has already cleared the first year of this post graduation with 58 per cent marks from Punjabi University, Patiala.

"The next thing I have on my mind is a PhD in Sikh Studies. I am confident about completing my third post graduation (MA in Sikh Studies) in April this year and then will start working on PhD," he beams, as enthusiastic about further studies as he was two years ago.

"The slowdown in the market has left our business of manufacturing machine tools badly affected and we have been running into losses. The production has decreased to one fourth of what we would churn out every month. But we are going to beat it and it is only a matter of four to five months."