A glimpse from the past : Vision beyond white attire

During the early 1900, there was a girl who was extremely intelligent and eager to learn, but she was asked to be at home rather than attend school. On those days, girls were delineated with the task of staying at home and learning household chores from grandmothers and mothers. Perhaps, two of the reasons were the lack of schools in the village, and that the safety of the girls was predominantly in the mind of the society.


In the middle of all negative campaigns against girls’ education, her father decided to go against the usual belief of the community and help his daughter to pursue her education in a school. However, finding a school was neither easy nor appreciated by the local authorities. The best solution the father can decide for the daughter was to approach the neighbouring houses for a paying accommodation so that his daughter can go to school every morning.


The father promised the girl that he would let her continue her studies instead of getting her married early. In those days, girls were married as soon as twelve or thirteen.


Days passed, and the girl managed to complete her school education till tenth standard ,which was a remarkable achievement for those days  . Her handwriting was one of the best in the school, and her excellent skills of creating cross stitch were much appreciated around the village. Her knowledge and wisdom grew, and she developed the habit of reading.

Soon after, she married an educated man and had the vision of teaching other children in town. However,the early death of her husband left her with the responsibility of raising three little girls on her own. It was a challenging time for her as a mother and a widow. To raise her daughters, she needed to move to a village house which was without any electricity and far away from the school. But she keep motivating her daughters to continue their education . At that time, her daughters were in classes two, four, and seven, and she needs to ensure the education of her children. She encouraged her daughter to chanalize their hardship into hardwork towards studies .


Unfortunately,being a widow means not being able to choose any colour for her except white. She accepts white with disapproval throughout her life but does feel frustrated with the societal rule which was imposed. But her white doesn’t deter her from her vision of promoting education among women. In her village, she requests other poor and underprivileged  women in white to send their children to her and helps them with the necessary training. Her vision helps other girls be motivated to gain knowledge and skills in school. She insists that a husband’s death is not the end of the world of a woman and that always wearing a white doesn’t define any individual in any way. She echoes her belief that what matters most for a society is to get rid of the things which are against the development of girls.
Finally, she could pass the unsurpassed courage and knowledge of education to her next generation.

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