Determination Changed Her Destiny

Siya was the fortunate girl (out of six) to have got an admission in one the private schools in Udaipur. Rest of them had to continue their education in government schools. This was like a dream come true for Mr. Gaur. He was more than happy for his daughter. He somewhere knew that he could not afford more than that. With his meagre salary, he was managing his house rent, daily expenses, education of his six children. He did everything whole-heartedly. Along with this, he also gave instructions to his wife and said, "Listen Sunita children shouldn't know if we are facing any financial crisis. They should get whatever they need. Our inabilities to provide them something shouldn't be a hindrance in their academics." Sunita smiled in agreement.

Siya, 12, when entered her classroom for the first time, she stood agape on seeing the beautifully decorated room, with children sitting on clean furniture, windows with curtains and fans rotating in full swing. She had never seen this ever before. Suddenly, there was someone who pushed her to let him enter the room. He said, "Why don't you enter the class? What are you looking at?" Siya, without a word, entered and sat at the last seat. She found it difficult to talk to her classmates on day one. She was in a different world. She could identify how different she looked in comparison to all students. Days passed and gradually she mingled with her mates, but never changed her seat.

Each period, she would see children taking out newly covered notebooks and beautiful geometry boxes. All she had was an ordinary pencil box, her notebooks weren't covered, they didn't even bear the school logo. So, she would hide her every belonging. Despite carrying a bottle, she would go out to drink water. She didn't have the courage to take her bottle out from her old bag, where the stitches were cleverly sewn. She would drink water only once, when no one would be around because she had a neatly washed, but stinky plastic bottle of cooking oil, which was wrapped up in plastic. The bottle would leak everyday and books and notebooks would be wet. Her entire written work would smudge terribly. Her lunch box would leak oil and make yellow patches in her notebooks and sometimes her white uniform would also be spoiled. She felt anxious, but never complaint. She would eat her lunch without being noticed and during recess, she would see everyone's gleaming boxes. She liked Tiffany's tiffin box too much. More than that, she enjoyed seeing the savoury dishes her mother would give her. She started talking to Tiffany and tried befriending her. Tiffany had no idea why Siya was not eating with her, but always she would come, sit and look at her box. Soon the time came, when she would rush to Tiffany and ask, "Tiffany can I bring you your tiffin box from your bag?" She wouldn't mind doing that. This continued for many days and Tiffany also became habitual of this.

Now, she would order her to bring her bag, tie her shoe laces, pack her bag before leaving. Tiffany assumed that she had enslaved Siya. She was also performing all these odd jobs without knowing the repercussions. The children around started noticing her behaviour and how she was being treated by Tiffany. No doubt, Tiffany felt empowered.

One day Siya did not go to school. At home, her mother asked her the reason for being at home. She lied to her and said, " I am having stomach ache, I will not be able to walk to school". Seeing the child suffering, mother allowed her to rest. While Siya was almost asleep, mother asked her, "Where is your bag, let me check your books and notebooks". She pointed out towards the plastic chair, which they used as their only furniture when guests would come. Sunita bent down to pull her bag out, she found a tiffin box, where the content was half covered with fungus, she also saw new pens which did not belong to Siya. She got up and held Siya tightly and forced her to get up and answer for those things in her bag.

Siya could not answer and sobbed. She told her that how children tease her and how they make fun of her for her lunch box, water bottle, her untidy uniform and occupation of her father. She continued, "They made me cry many a time in the class but I never responded. So I thought of taking a revenge by stealing their favourite things. Today they will also cry like I did" The mother was shocked to learn about the terrible journey of her little child in the school. Her happiness turned to distress on knowing about the rich kids who could not tolerate a child in the class who belonged to socially a middle class. Mother knew she was mentally harassed so she thought of helping Siya in getting over this situation and remove her emotional scar forever, but she could not. She told Siya to promise that she would not repeat that again. Siya promised and mustered her courage to work hard and challenge her destiny.

Today, Siya is a famous child psychologist working in the same school and has been instrumental in changing the mind set of hundreds of rich spoilt brats, so that there is no Siya who is victimised again.