Kavya called me up now. At 10pm. She's having to repeat her 10th maths exam. In less than a month. There is no one to guide her, and she's desperate.
In a town I would have found some tutorial to place her in. What can I find in a remote village.
I have friends who's children are going to expensive IIT coachings. And I have friends who's children do not have anyway of getting coached to pass their 10th makeup exam in maths.
They belong to different world, though they are both part of this India,.
Some lives are hard deals. Even at 15 years.
`
Nagesh and I reached out to every possible lead we had around the village and in Tirupathi. Finally found a tution teacher in Tirupathi who does just this, somehow helps children to pass their maths bases on some 'past papers' and 'important questions'. We spoke to him. Then we told Eashwaramma to pack Kavya to Tirupathi immediately to be coached for the next few weeks and pass her supplementary exams somehow.
Kavya's mother abandoned them when they were small soon after their father was killed. She lives in Tirupathi. We dont really speak to her in the village. Of late she has been trying to talk to the children, and comes sometimes to the village. Anyway this was no time for personal likes and dislikes. I called her up and told her that her daughter would be staying with her for 3-4 weeks, and that we had spoken to the tution teacher, and she should help her reach the place. She said it would clash with her work as a cleaner, and that it was too far, and that Kavya could study in the village itself.
I tried telling her that without guidance she would fail, and would be sitting at home for a year. And that then her studies may halt. I said I would pay for her tution, and also any extras to transpost etc. I cut no ice. Kavya also called up and faced the same iciness.
We were worried about the security of a girl child, and where she could stay. Then we asked her brother Sasi to also come with her as he could just go with her daily. He has dropped out of school, and has lost his way currently. He was a nice child, but as he hit teens, the reality of no parents or parental control, and the effects of only being brought up by a single grandmother, poor and landless, was all too clear. He was headstrong and just dropped out of school.And is on his own trip. He refused to.
So at 6am, the 15 year old girl got into the bus to Tirupathi on her own. Her mother had refused support, she had no father, her grandmother could not do anything here. She wanted to pass her 10th, and was ready to do anything needed.
Nagesh was at a meeting in Tirupathi and could not meet her at the busstop. He sent her a known auto driver, and she came to our friends' home. From there the tution centre is a 45mt walk on the main road. So though she had to go at 5am for the morning class, and will return at 10pm after the evening class its possible on the crowned main road. The friends agreed to keep her with them. Nagesh went and met the teacher with her, gave her money for her needs, and returned to the village.
For a child of 15, to understand that she had no father, a mother who does not care, to be dependent of the help of others, and to have the determination to work and somehow pass and do a course that will help her earm a livlihood ... all this is too much. Its heartbreaking.
All our own children are so protected. And yet this is the fate of many other children.
...
May 22 2017
Found Kavya this tution teacher in Tirupathi.
So our friends are keeping her for this month, and every morning she walks to the tution centre 4km away at 5am. The classes are from 5a.m to 7am in the morning, and 5pm to 9pm in the evening. I worry about her coming alone, but its a main road she had to walk down.
I give her 100/- a day for her meals, and she has breakfast for 20/-, and lunch and dinner for 40/- each at a small eatery on the way.
Eashwaramma, her gransmother, has sustained the children since their father's death when Kavya was 6. With her labour.
A 15 year old struggling on her own, despite the burdens of poverty, orphan status, dalithood, landlessness. Cheerfully. With positivity. She wants to pass her compartment paper in Maths, do her Inter, and become a nurse or a doctor. And look after her grandmother.
July 14 2017
Kavya passed her 10th ! In her repeat exams.
She is very happy. She had decided to work through her Biology, Physics, Chemistry. Though with poor teaching in the government college, those subjects get quite hard. She has decided that she will do Nursing next 'like Sukanya Akka'.
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