Bengaluru: In a year that Karnataka celebrated its best PU results, girls have outshone boys. But one girl has everything to be proud of. She’s 17 years old, works part time in eight domestic help jobs, a cleaner at an office, and secured 84.8% in the science stream. Maybe Shalini A. A resident of Maiyappanpalya in Bengaluru, was some distance away from the science topper who scored a whopping 99.1% , but then she studied for her exams after completing her jobs, tending to a sick and finishing her house work, something very few children of her age have to do now a days.
She’s not only bright and hardworking. She’s ambitious. Now, she’s preparing for the Common Entrance Test, a competitive exam for admissions in medical, dental and engineering courses in professional colleges.
Its not been easy, ever, for Shalini.
She has changed her medium of instruction thrice already — she started in a Tamil medium school, moved to Kannada, and then started learning in English just a couple of years back.
Reportedly, her father has been bed-ridden since she was seven years old, after he fell off a building. While he has regained some movement now, he is still restricted in his movements and is compelled to stay within the confines of his house. Her mother worked as a domestic help in several houses so she could provide for Shalini and her younger brother. But early this year, her brother was diagnosed with third stage blood cancer, dealing a serious blow to the already-strained family circumstances.
The responsibility came on young Shalini’s shoulders to help her mother cope with the new setback. While the two divided time between Shalini’s brother at hospital and her father at home — Shalini always with a book in her hands — she also had to take over all of her mother’s part-time jobs.
“If I had not put in so much time in the hospital, I might have scored better,” she told the Bangalore Mirror. “But my brother is more important to me than marks.”
An Impossible Schedule
Shalini is forced to rise early, very early, 4.30 am in fact to finish all her household chores. On completion of her domestic chores, she rushes to five houses in the neighbourhood to water plants and draw ‘Rangoli’ (auspicious floor patterns) in front of the houses. Then, at 6.00 am, she scrubs the floors and washes the bathrooms at an office and at 7.30 she is off to wash clothes at another house.
She is back home by 9 am, and studies for her CET for about three hours, keeping an eye out for domestic chores, her father and brother. As if that is not enough, she works two more houses, comes back at 4.30 PM and studies till six pm. She’s off again at 6 pm working in different houses returning at night, only to burn the midnight oil, literally till midnight, and it’s a repeat performance day after day.
She praises her teachers for their support, and says she doesn’t mind the hard work, so long as she can support her family. Next goal – the CET.
