Author: Pallavi Singh
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 6, 2006
Introduction: This year's Backward Class topper
feels urban Maharashtra provides ample opportunities to excel
In Cotton Green's Chatai Chawl, Ramchandra
Kharkhele (45)-a peon with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited-is famously known
as Reena's father.
On Monday morning, as a long stream of visitors
started arriving at his modest one-room tenement with profuse greetings, his
18-yearold daughter added another chapter of glory to his otherwise measured
existence.
Reena topped the Backward Classes (BC) category
in the Mumbai region of the Maharashtra state Board's Higher Secondary Certificate
exams with 92.67 per cent marks, good enough to compete with anyone in the
General category.
That's why, perhaps, she isn't agitated over
the controversial quotas. "I don't need reservations. I'll study hard
to pull myself above everyone else," she says.
"But I think people of our classes in
rural Maharashtra need support. In urban cities like Mumbai, people like us
get ample opportunities," she adds, after a pause.
This is not Reena's first brush with excellence
either-she was BC topper in the 2004 Senior Secondary Certificate (SSC) exams
too.
"My secret?" she grins, "Study,
study, study... and very little sleep."
In her one-room-kitchen house, most of that
studying had to be done in the kitchen. "My mother would cook early in
the morning and then vacate the room so I could study," says Reena.
In recognition of her earlier achievement,
a local coaching institute had waived her tuition fees-saving her family precious
money from her father's Rs 10,000 monthly salary. "They knew I needed
it, since both my parents are just matriculates," she says.
Ramchandra too knows how important his children's
education is. Reena's two siblings are both currently being coached at private
institutes, with neither parent thinking twice about the expense.
"For us, education comes first,"
says Ramchandran. "I want my children to do well in life."
And their efforts are bearing fruit. Younger
daughter Veena missed the merit list by just two marks in the SSC Boards last
year.
The only conflict on the happy day, meanwhile,
was over Reena's ambition to join the Indian Administrative Service-her father
wants her to become a doctor.
"I've decided to do both. After my Medicals,
I'll appear for the civil service exam," she says.
Any alternate plans in case of failure? "Failure
has never been an option," she says.
pallavi.singh@expressindia.com
