20th September, 2016

LIFE IS A CIRCLE 

Writing a blog post everyday is bringing a new light to my life. I am moved by everyone’s love & appreciation & how they can connect to it. My loved ones & family are saying, Pratibha Write a book , you are a writer. The other day, a friend said, Pratibha your compositions are beautiful, how can you write & frame so beautifully. It was quiet & it reminded me of old days.

I am going to share the truth of my life today. I was born in Jharsuguda, Odisha .My father has a strong belief that one should get the basic education in their mother tongue, as it helps in better understanding. I have studied in a hindi medium school , Saraswati Shishu Mandir from nursery till class 10th. English was just a subject & we had the basic knowledge of it but I could hardly speak & write a sentence in english at that time. 

It was 31st May 2002,  the day my class 10th result was announced. My uncle & aunt were at Jharsuguda visiting us .We made a quick decision that, I will go to Jabalpur for my further studies. I wasn’t prepare to leave home but packed my bags in four days & we left for Jabalpur. We applied in many schools, but as the admissions were almost closed & all the schools already had one month of academic session, they were skeptical to take new students. 

Finally, I  got admission in Christ Church Senior Secondary School , Jabalpur and that too in ISC board as the CBSE seats were full. ISC board meant that I had to study Shakespeare and Charles Dickens as a subject course book. For a girl who could hardly read & understand the writings of Indian authors at that time, studying Shakespeare was a nightmare. 

Those days were the toughest. I was dealing with homesickness, food & on the top of that English. I could hardly spell phosphorous right 🙂 I remember, our teacher used to mark my spellings on exam answer sheets. I didn’t know how to start an interaction in english so made a decision to keep quiet most of the time. Slowly, I leaned few sentences & used to speak the same with everyone 🙂 At times, they used to make fun of me & talk on my back about my ascent & grammar. 

I used to sit with my course books for hours without understanding a single word  of it. In the beginning, physics was like an alien to me 🙂  On the top of everything, we didn’t have tution facilities available in our hostel. I didn’t want to share my background with anyone, as I feared that they will not accept me then. This all left me alone to deal with the situation at hand.  I used to sleep at 4 :oo AM and woke up at 6 :00 AM to read. Sometimes, I used to cry the whole night, figuring  out what Shakespeare is trying to convey through his writings, figuring out how can I solve that physics numericals & what does this chemical reactions means. 

I had an option to go back, but being a topper through out my high school, I didn’t want to fail.I knew, if I will go back now, I will have no option in future to come out of that place. By God’s grace, I would say , I got promoted to class 12th. My whole family were there like a pillar supporting me each & every day. Especially My uncle,  Satish Phuphaji & my lovely aunt, Sangita bhua. I have no words to express my gratitude to them & will write about them soon 🙂 

Being, promoted to class 12th gave me some confidence, I slowly started working on my english, took help from my friends & family. I accepted myself & got all my spellings on track. I started understanding physics & could find meaning in shakespeare verse by then. The happiest day of my life is when I cleared my 12th with 80% of marks. I still feel that to be my biggest achievement of life. 

Few days back one of my friend  from Christ Church called & said. “Pratibha.. Blogging slogging.. amazing it is yar, your english, words, & the way you frame your story. Just wow !! I also want to start my blog , please help me with it. I want to start writing , how can I do it ? “

I was stuck for a moment, she needs my help to start writing ? She was always a good friend & supported me but still, she was the one with best vocabulary in our class. She had the expertise in Shakespeare & the one with excellent writing skills during high school.

 It was a wake up call for me !!!

It reminded me how our whole life comes in a circle one day, we don’t know where life will take us & what we all will be tomorrow. We don’t know, with whom we will cross our path  in future.We don’t know …We just don’t know.

I learned, one should not make fun of anyone’s weaknesses & underestimate them.  Instead we should support them, the best we can today.  I learned , we shouldn’t even underestimate ourselves. We never know , how our weaknesses could turn out to be our biggest strength one day.

LIFE IS A CIRCLE 

 

 

Saraswati Shishu Mandir

Christ Church , Jabalpur