Why rural girls respond especially strongly
One of the most powerful themes in my memoir is my mother’s belief that education cannot be stolen, unlike wealth or jewelry.
When I was a student, my life changed in a way I had never expected.
My mother passed away while we were still young.
Suddenly the world felt very different.
I was still a student, but at the same time I had become responsible for my younger sisters.
I remember sitting quietly one evening and thinking:
What will happen to us now?
How will I continue my studies?
Who will guide my sisters?
At that moment, I felt the weight of responsibility for the first time in my life.
Later, when I went to study at
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur,
I entered a completely new world.
There were hundreds of students, almost all of them boys, and only a very small number of girls.
Academically it was demanding, and emotionally it was not easy either.
While solving engineering problems, part of my mind was always thinking about my family and my sisters.
Sometimes I wondered whether I was strong enough to carry both responsibilities — my education and my family.
But then I remembered something my mother used to say:
Education is the only wealth that nobody can steal.
That thought gave me strength.
I realized that if I continued my education, I was not only helping myself — I was also creating a better future for my sisters.
Responsibility felt heavy, but it also gave me purpose.
And step by step, that responsibility became the source of my determination.
My story shows how one opportunity—studying at IIT Kanpur—changed the trajectory of an entire family. Several of our siblings later pursued higher education and professional careers.
My memoir contains three elements that deeply resonate with them: Struggle – poverty, responsibility, grief, Resistance – against social and gender barrier and Possibility – education creating a new future.
I described how society considered having many daughters a burden and pressured families to marry girls early instead of educating them.
I described how, after my mother’s death, I had to take responsibility for my younger sisters while studying engineering. At the same time I were dealing with grief, financial stress, and academic pressure.
In my batch there were around 410 boys and only two girls, which made the environment intimidating.
When I look back at my life today, I often remember my mother’s simple words:
“Education is the only wealth that cannot be stolen.”
At that time, I did not fully understand how powerful those words were.
But when I walked into the campus of
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
as a young girl carrying responsibilities for my family, I slowly realized their meaning.
Education gave me strength when life became difficult.
It gave my sisters and our family a different future.
And that is why I always tell young students, especially girls:
if you protect your education, your education will protect your future.