The kind of culture prevailed in India during the time of Independence, it is hard to believe that a girl would be given the freedom to study. Not only that, she was a NCC cadet till her graduation and had completed multiple degrees. This is the story of Mrs. Saroj, whose passion for studying English had brought her this far and supported her household too.
“My school was a Christian school with Hindi medium. But our English teacher had good command over English, especially grammar, it was then I had this urge of studying English and be good at it. Given that I was from Hindi medium school, I opted BA in Hindi in graduation as well, though I badly wanted to opt for English but somehow inferiority complex didn’t let me do it. Eventually I had to do MA in Hindi as well. Though I pursued my graduation in Hindi but my passion for English never died.
Later I pursued B.Ed,another thing I hated. Somehow, I was good at it and my teachers wanted me to make my career in teaching. After this, I had done numerous jobs as English teachers and Principals over many cities since my husband used to change his job often and we had to shift a lot.
It was when we shifted to Indore, I got this opportunity to do MA in English in 1967. With due support from my husband and sons, I completed it with flying colors. Later we shifted to Bhopal and I got a couple of opportunities to be principal in colleges, but my father expired and my offer lapsed. Then I decided to take Spoken English classes and since then there is no looking back. I’m now 78 and still take classes. English is not only my passion but had supported us in the times of crisis.”
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