Dr. Sarita Ramsurat Mali, who traveled from a slum in Mumbai to the University of California, says that if you don’t get a good teacher, you will not be able to identify the right path and destination throughout your life.
It is often said about education that it is the milk of a lioness, the more you taste it, the more you roar. That is, true education breaks all the shackles of caste, religion, class etc. and prepares you to move ahead and fulfill your dreams. Teachers play the most important role in this entire journey. 5th September is celebrated as Teachers’ Day in India. It is the birthday of former President of India Sarvepalli Dr. Radhakrishnan. Today on Teacher’s Day, we meet a girl who grew up in a slum of Mumbai and today is a research scholar at the University of California.
We will eat bread and salt, we will get our daughter to do BA
This is a popular belief in Bangla. Which shows the dedication and awareness of Bengali people towards education. Sarita is an Ambedkarite and seems to be a living example of this saying. She says, “My primary education was done in a Marathi school in Mumbai. We lived in a slum and that was the primary source of education. But the credit for my inclination towards books should be given to my parents and my family. They used to say that clothes, decorations come later, studies come first. My mother was also an eighth pass, so at her level she also knew the importance of education. She also wanted that her daughters should at least do BA.”
“After work, my father would often talk to the people to whose shops he used to deliver flowers and garlands. Seeing them, he would think that education is the only ladder by climbing which his children can move forward. That is why he used to encourage them to leave everything and focus only on studies.”
First education was from Marathi school in Mumbai.la
Dr. Sarita Ramsurat Mali is originally from Jaunpur. But her father had come to Mumbai long ago to work as a labourer. Where he worked as a truck cleaner for 30-35 years. Later he started making and selling flower garlands. His family also helped him in this.
Sarita Mali was born in this family. Talking about her family and early education, Sarita says, “My education started from the Marathi school in the municipal school. In Mumbai, it is called Marathi school. Here I studied in Hindi medium till class 10th. After passing class 10th with good marks, I got admission in Mumbai’s prestigious college K J Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce.
Read this also
“This was the first turning point in my life. I got a chance to closely observe and understand the dialect, language, food, culture and lifestyle of that place. I must say that after Marathi, I have now learnt more about Gujarati culture.”
“Sometimes it felt like I didn’t have good clothes, I looked different from them. But it was here that I found teachers who taught me to overcome these things and overcome obstacles. I have always been very dear to my teachers. My teachers have also been very dear to me. Wherever I am today, whatever position I have reached, after my parents, all the credit for that goes to my teachers.”
JNU is a different world from Mumbai
JNU is a completely different world. Here you don’t just get a degree, but also form a perception about life. You learn to identify those things which have been causing discrimination against a person.
After completing my BA in 2014, I gave the entrance exam for JNU. I was selected here on the last seat for OBC. In 2016, I cleared the entrance exam for PhD in JNU and secured an All India Rank. I was the first girl from the non-Hindi belt to achieve this feat. I did my MPhil with Prof. Devendra Chaubey Sir. After that, I did PhD and during my PhD, I applied to the US. Where I was selected in the University of California, St. Barbara.
I am having different kind of experiences here. But here also I got such teachers who helped me a lot in studying and progressing.
Reading and teaching are both special to me.
Dr. Sarita says, in my journey of education, my teachers taught me to oppose all kinds of discrimination and move ahead from it. At the University of California, I got the opportunity to teach along with doing research. Teaching is as special for me as studying. I try to forward the same values of equality, advancement and progress that I have imbibed from my teachers.
I thank Dr Anita Thakkar ma’am, Dr Satish Pandey sir, JNU and University of California and most of all Dr Ambedkar. Because of whom I am here today. A teacher is your true guide. If you are not shown the path properly, then even after walking for a lifetime, you will not be able to reach your destination.
Read this also- Old laws seem to be applicable to new problems, meet Amrita Verma, the legal educator of social media