She bravedfiscal hardships to be one of the HSSCL toppers in Meghalaya, says Rajib Roy
WHERE THERE is a will, there is a way. Rabina Kala Rakash has proved this adage true.
Rabina stood second in the recently concluded higher secondary school leaving certificate (HSSLC-Arts) ex¬amination result declared by the Meghalaya Board of School Education. She has become an idol and hope for many students pursuing their studies amidst hardships.
“It is everyone’s dream to become affluent and edu¬cation is the only way out to achieve this,” is what Rabina believes in.
Rabina’s father, a retired havildar in the army, could not fund her studies because the family of four runs on his pension. Her elder sister, doing BSc from Shillong’s St Mary’s College – where Rabina took admission in BA (Economics) – is imparting private tuitions to relieve her parents from the burden of education expenses to an ex¬tent. Like her, Rabina too is going to impart tuitions and manage some of the expenses on her own. Her mother is a homemaker.
She worked hard for this position with ample breaks in between to relieve her from any tension or stress as a result. She studied in breakups of 3/4 hours each starting from five in the morning till 11 at night.
Despite all odds, her parents never encouraged the two sisters to pursue their academic ambition. Rabina, a student of Laban Bengalee Girls’ HS School, made her alma mater proud by bagging the second position with has a diverse primate popula-tion of seven species. The stump-tailed macaque is rarely seen, but the pig-tailed macaque is often en¬countered. The hoolock gibbon is well distributed all over the park except for
letter marks in all subjects except one. The ‘always regular student’, as her principal Sudipta Hore puts it, was also helped by an American trust with fi¬nances.
“I faced difficulties in pursuing my studies since it is not possible for my father to DMT), started by a former Shillongite to help non-tribal students unable to pursue their studies came to her res¬cue. The DMT helped her with Rs 10,000. Hore recom¬mended her to the trust on the basis of her leadership skills and merit. The trust has also helped another needy student from its high school level.
The support of parents also counted besides the fund¬ing. “My parents support me a lot and my cousin helped and guided me in my studies,” she said. Hore said that Rabina’s success story would encourage others. “It is often seen that parents tend to get their daughters mar¬ried off after they have attained some education. But Rabina’s parents stood by her despite difficulties and never made her feel they were struggling to support her,” she added.
“I am happy to have made my parents proud with this achievement. Everybody congratulated me and most im¬portantly for me, my friends said they were inspired by my result and vowed to improve upon their HSSCL per¬formances,” Rabina said.
But her father had initially thought she had secured second division. He was dejected since Rabina had scored high in the SSLC examination. “We were for al¬most a day until we read the newspaper next morning and found my name in the top 10 list. It was a dream come true,” said Rabina, attributing her success to the guidance of her teachers and her cousin sister Anamika Upadhaya who teaches as a substitute in her college.
Rabina feels education is very important in life since it gives one the freedom to break the shackles and also change one’s personality. The second position means a lot to her since it would open up sources of funding for graduation and higher studies that are bound to be expensive.
“She is a good student who became better by giving up science and mathe¬matics after SSLC. Her hard work, obedience and regular attendance worked towards her success,” said Hore, adding she did regu¬lar pranayam in Gandhar (a city based socio-cultural organization that empha¬size on spiritual elation) that boosted her concentra¬tion.
A lover of philosophy, Rabina has however cho¬sen honors in Economics for graduation because the subject offers more scope and has a lot of demand in today’s world. She weighs her options well before choosing a subject combi¬nation. She considers Ravi Shankar and Swami Vivekananda as her role models in life.