Summary
The girls addressed the auditorium, and when they stopped speaking, the students of Mahadevi Birla World Academy and their parents stood up spontaneously and gave the girls a standing ovation
Two young women who did not give up in the face of odds, financial and physical, addressed an auditorium full of more privileged students in a private school.
One of them, Prerana Rana, fought abject poverty and cancer and is now a third-year MBBS student.
The second, Sabina Khatun, was left with her siblings by their father on the streets at the age of three. She grew up in a non-custodial home where her mother, struggling to manage three children, put her. She passed the higher secondary exams this year and is aspiring to pursue engineering.
There was pin-drop silence in the auditorium when the two narrated their stories.
When they stopped speaking, the students of Mahadevi Birla World Academy and their parents stood up spontaneously and gave the girls a standing ovation.
Prerana, 21, and Sabina, 18, were chief guests at the programme on the occasion of the senior school prize day.
Prerana addressed the students of Classes X and XII and Sabina the students of Classes IX and XI.
“We see how our students every day look for instant gratification. They are disconnected from the real world and family. The girls on stage came from humble, nondescript backgrounds with aspirations that they fulfilled,” said Anjana Saha, principal of Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
Saha said the two and many like them crave access and opportunities and the fire in their belly helps them achieve what they have.
Prerana is studying medicine at the NRS Medical College and Hospital, having cracked the National Eligibility cum Entrance test in her first attempt.
Sabina and (right) Prerana share their experiences with the students and their parents during the event
The desire to become a doctor was ignited in her when she was undergoing treatment for synovial sarcoma, a form of cancer that impacted her left foot, which had to be amputated when she was in Class V.
“The treatment went for close to seven months with cycles of chemotherapy. I got an artificial foot but was unsure whether I could walk because I could not balance myself. It took me about a year to be able to walk again,” said Prerana.
The struggles were not just medical but also financial, as Prerana's father, a marginal farmer in Kumarda village in West Midnapore, was taking loans from friends and relatives to pay for his daughter's treatment.
“There were moments of despair when I would think whether I would recover or not. Whether I would be able to walk. It was during the treatment that I told myself that if I recovered, I would become a doctor. And here I am,” she said.
Last year, Prerana applied to The Telegraph Education Foundation for a scholarship and received one.
While they spoke, Prerana and Sabina both had one message for the students of Mahadevi Birla World Academy: Don't give up.
It was not didactic — their life is a story of not giving up.
“Life has never been easy for anyone. You have to overcome your problems,” said Sabina, who grew up in a Rainbow Home of Loreto Day School Bowbazar. Rainbow Homes, run by Loreto Sisters, are non-custodial hostels where underprivileged girls stay till they turn 18.
There were times when she felt like giving up, but she did not. The people around her helped “take out the best version of her”, she said.
“You should never forget your goals. You should stick to it,” she said in fluent English.
“I studied in a Bengali-medium school but I always wanted to be fluent in English. So I kept practising and gave my 200 per cent,” said Sabina.
Students at the south Calcutta school listened to them with rapt attention.
Some of the teachers had tears in their eyes.
Anushka Agarwal, a student of Class XII, said it was a moment of self-reflection. “At times I feel overburdened by studies and all I have to do is that,” she said.
“I demand a high-end phone from my parents, more pocket money and more books to appear for an entrance test... whereas I should be grateful for what I have,” she said.
When The Telegraph asked Prerana about her experience in a private English-medium school, she said she was humbled and did not see her struggles as greater than anyone else’s.
“Everyone has their own struggle, it is not about it being big or small... but I am humbled that my struggles had some value for others,” she said.
Last updated on 30 Jul 2023
