We often complain about how our education system spares no free time for us. And it’s almost impossible to do anything apart from studies if you want to score good marks.
Then how come Shalini A from Mariyappanapalya managed to do so?
The 17 year old girl scored a brilliant 84.8 percent marks in science stream in her 12th board exams. If you are wondering, what’s so astonishing about 85 percent, continue reading.
Before you start judging her any further, let me tell you what she has been up to.
Shalini comes from a very poor financial background. Her father has been in bed since she was seven years old, as he fell from a building. Her mother used to work as a domestic servant to cater for the needs of her and her brother. But ever since her brother got diagnosed with blood cancer, third stage, it became difficult for her mother to keep things together.
It left Shalini with no option, but to work if she wanted to continue her studies.
She currently works in 8 part time jobs as a domestic help and as a cleaner in an office. If she has to study, then there is no option, but to cope up with this impossible schedule.
Her brother is in hospital and her father in bed at home. She has to spare time to look after her brother as well, as her mother takes care of her father.
Even in the hospital Shalini always carries a book with herself, not missing a single opportunity to study. She is now planning to sit for the competitive exams, and see whether if she could make it any of the dental, engineering or medical colleges. Shalini is aiming to crack the CET exam, and she is getting good support from all her teachers in this endeavour.
If a girl could manage such adversities single handily, I don’t see anything which she can’t do.
When you look at her daily routine, there is hardly even time to breathe. Shalini told the Bangalore Mirror, “I wake up around 4.30 am. After finishing my household chores, I rush to five houses close by where my job is to sprinkle water and draw Rangoli.”
After she is done with the Rangoli, she goes to the office where she cleans the bathrooms and mops the floors. The work doesn’t end there. Her further routine goes somewhat like this, “The work ends by 7.30 am and then I head to another house to wash clothes. I am relatively free by 9 am and go home to prepare for CET. My study, coupled with my household chores, ends by 12.30 pm when it’s time to step out again for two more jobs. I come back by 4.30 pm and have time till 6 pm to study.”
She is an extremely hard working girl who doesn’t believe in cribbing about things. She knows that the situation is tough and there is no other way but to keep up with it.
Shalini loves her family, and that is her first priority. She said, “If I had not put in so much time in the hospital, I might have scored better. But my brother is more important to me than marks.”
Life has never been easy on Shalini, rather it has been extremely hard for a 17 year old teenager. But the grit which she has shown has made every problem succumb in front of her.
Every one of us can take a leaf or two out of her life and understand what hard work in extreme situations actually means.
Perhaps now you would have understood how huge that 85% marks is.
