This Little Girl

This little girl arrived uninvited. After a girl and a boy child, her parents weren’t sure if they needed one more. They were just making ends meet with the government job that her father held. She arrived nonetheless, a puny baby that turned blue soon after birth. Her mother cried seeing the weak child, her father wondered if she would even survive. She didn’t just survive, she thrived.?

Her father enrolled her at a nearby government-aided school. The little girl was quite studious and regularly topped the class. She loved Math from a very young age. Was consistently scoring centum in it. When she was leaving primary school, her headmistress asked her father to enroll the girl into English medium in high school as her English was good and learning in English would benefit the girl in the long run.

The proud father enrolled her into the English medium in the high-school in the same campus. Girl struggled through the first term. She flunked in Science and Social Science. She kept at it. Made gradual progress and by the end of that academic year emerged a topper in the class. Her class teacher spoke impeccable English and in style. The girl was taken by her flow and articulation. She would emulate the teacher at home. Her father got her a dictionary, clarified the meaning of words / sentences she could not understand and subscribed to a English daily at home. She started with reading the headlines. Her vocabulary was developing.??

She continued to have amazing teachers through the rest of her schooling - a Math teacher who always started her class with stimulating mental sums, a English teacher who made grammar a breeze, a Science teacher who made her fall in love with the subject and many more. Girl was a consistent class topper all through her school life, was class-captain, elected school captain in higher-secondary, a regular prize winner for general proficiency and one or more co-curricular activities among - elocution, thirukkural recital, essay writing, drawing/painting et al and topped the school in the board exams. Outside of school, her father enrolled her for Hindi language and art class both under inspiring teachers. She enjoyed learning from them.??

She went on to do Engineering at a prestigious institution, entered the tech industry and enjoys a growing career doing intellectually stimulating work with great colleagues from across the globe. She reads a lot, writes here, enjoys speaking, hosts episodes on a podcast et al. Her family keeps her grounded. The girl is immensely grateful to all the people who were and are continuing to be part of her journey and evolution. She is what the people around her believed and are believing her to be.?

Why is she writing all this now and here? It’s the international day of the girl child on the 11th Oct. And the little girl hopes by sharing her story she may end up inspiring at least one other little girl to look at her own life differently.?

#ThisLittleGirlIsMe