Bhopal:
Vanisha Pathak of Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal scored 100 in her English, Sanskrit, Science and Social Science Class X CBSE exams, and 97 in Mathematics – an unbelievable achievement for any pupil, however a very very good one for a 16-year-old lady who misplaced her mother and father to COVID-19 in May.
Two months in the past, with the exams across the nook, her whole world plunged into darkness – her mother and father died in hospital inside days of one another.
A as soon as bustling and cheerful family was shattered. Suddenly, it was simply she and Vivan, her 10-year-old brother. She realised she was the one household her brother had.
“(The memory of) my parents obviously kept me motivated and will motivate me throughout my life (but) he (the brother) is the biggest source of motivation right now… I am all he has and that keeps me going. I need to do something,” Ms Pathak instructed NDTV.
“The last thing my mother said to me was ‘just believe in yourself… we will back soon’. The last words of my father were ‘beta, himmat rakhna‘ (stay strong, my child),” she added.
Ms Pathak’s father – Jeetendra Kumar Pathak – was a monetary advisor, and her mom, Dr Seema Pathak – was a instructor at a authorities college.
The final time she noticed them alive was once they left for hospital, collectively.
And then got here the terrible information. Ms Pathak needed to will herself to go from grief to acceptance, and from acceptance to concentrating on her research.
“My father wanted to see me in IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) or crack the UPSC and serve the nation. His dream is my dream now,” she mentioned.
Now she lets phrases stream instead of her tears, funneling her angst and unhappiness right into a poem – “I’ll be a strong girl, daddy, without you…” – excerpts of that are given under.
“With a heavy coronary heart, I bid you goodbye
For you left me on their own to cry.
Now each tear fetches a reminiscence of yours,
But I maintain it again and do not let it stream…
… will not let ache overpower me,
and I’ll stand tall.
… I’ll be the rationale on your satisfaction,
with a hope to see you once more sometime
after we all, with no worries, will make hay…”
Vanisha Pathak’s poem
Ms Pathak and her brother now reside with their maternal uncle – Dr Ashok Kumar, a professor at a Bhopal school – and aunt, Dr Bhavna Sharma, who describe her as a “fighter”.
