This story is of my parents who themselves are victims of society but struggled to make a change. We are four sisters. Anybody who would listen to this will assume that my parents were waiting for a son but it wasn’t them. It was my grandparents who were waiting for it.
Even after we were four daughters, unlike others in society my mother was determined to give us education. She didn’t let us get in the kitchen, wash our clothes or anything. All the time her single dialogue was, Study. She used to wake us up at 4 AM and teach us. She didn’t know English but she made sure we know the answers of every question in the book. We were the typical middle class family. There came a time when there was zero income in my family. All the relatives said, no need for daughters’ education. They are going to get married anyways. It was my mom again who struggled and made sure we get education. But our parents’ didn’t know about Engineering, Medical, Science, Arts.
That was when my Dad got a contract from a renowned University for his work. That’s where we got to know about the different fields of education. My Dad’s salary was not very much but he made sure all of us got education. Right now, three of us sisters are Engineers and the other one is working in Bank.
There are people who saw my parents going from middle class to below poverty line and then again coming back.
I have seen the struggle they went through to make us independent and today I feel proud when my Dad says ‘ You are my son’.
The story is worth telling because I am from a small village in Odisha. Whenever I go to my village, I feel bad that everyone thinks whatever happened to us was out of luck. I see girls with lot of potential but they end up being a mother, a wife in the age of mere 20. Being in such a society, my parents gave us education. They struggled and they are still struggling to get us married in a good family. My only aim in my life is to give them a good life which they sacrificed for us. I am a proud daughter of such strong parents. I hope this story reaches to millions of people and they educate their daughters.