Their humble backgrounds did not stop the flame of inspiration from kindling the spirit of excellence for Sujata Pandey and Sheetal Verma who went on to taste success at the UP Board Intermediate (Class 12) examinations, securing the joint second and third ranks respectively.
Sujata, the daughter of a factory worker, said she studied under a solar emergency light at her native village Sirsiya in Deoria district of eastern Uttar Pradesh.
“We often face power cuts at night in our village. We have a small solar emergency light which we charge in the daytime and use at night for studies,” said Sujata , a student of Deoria’s A R D Inter college.
“My father Bhanu Pratap Pandey works in a factory in our village and has done odd jobs for our studies,” she said.
She obtained 488 out of 500 marks (97.60%) in humanities — 99 in Hindi, 98 in History and Economics, 96 in English and 67 in Geography.
“I never let many challenges and poverty eat into study time,” she said.
“The condition of my village is extremely bad in terms of electricity and other basic amenities. That is why I want to be a civil servant so that I can do something for my village,” she said about her future goal.
{{/usCountry}}“The condition of my village is extremely bad in terms of electricity and other basic amenities. That is why I want to be a civil servant so that I can do something for my village,” she said about her future goal.
{{/usCountry}}Sheetal Verma, too, excelled, securing 487/500 (97.40%) with 98 in Hindi, 96 in English, 98 in Physics, 97 in Chemistry and 98 in Biology.
At Sitapur’s Tikra village, the joy of Suresh Chandra Verma, 46, a sanitation worker, knew no bounds when he got the news of his only daughter Sheetal’s third rank.
“Right after seeing her results, I took her to a restaurant,” said Suresh, who works in the panchayat raj department.
“I do not want my daughter to fight the odds that I faced. What could be better news than this for a parent?” Suresh said.
Outlining her preferred career path, Sheetal said, “I want to become a doctor.”
“I sent my daughter to a private school. As she was good in studies and secured 96.8% marks in high school (Class 10), her fees were waived, which helped me a lot,” her father said.
Six students jointly shared the second rank in the UP Board intermediate exam, scoring 489 out of 500 marks (98.80%).
Among them Charli Gupta of Siddharth Nagar and Kashish Maurya of Sitapur said that they want to become doctors while Amroha’s Kajal Singh dreamt of becoming an engineer.
Daughter of a farmer, Kashish said, “I want to study consistently with no defined study hours.”
Charli Gupta, too, wants to become a doctor and serve the society. “I’m very proud of my daughter. She would study late at night and this is the result of that,” said Charlie’s father Om Prakash Gupta, a shopkeeper.
Kajal Singh, the daughter of a schoolteacher, said consistent study is the core mantra. “Late night and early morning studies helped me complete my syllabus,” she said.