My friend SS

SS was a dear friend of mine and one of my project partners in college. She was from a small village on the outside of the city. Her father was a shopkeeper with 3 daughters. There had the basics in terms of food, clothing and shelter and a bit more. Not a life of luxury by any means. She was short,brown and squint eyed which made her the butt of cruel jokes made by insensitive college boys. She spoke grammatically incorrect English with a heavy vernacular accent which did not help the cause.

What made SS so extraordinary is her perseverance and strength of character. She had a steady vision of where she wanted to go and would not let temporary setbacks derail this long term vision.

She would wake up early and take a bus and a shared rickshaw from her village to come to the city to attend college and the same on the way back home. Come rain or shine she would attend all the classes when the rest of us will bunk and goof off in the canteen. She had figured out some institution founded by her community elders that would loan textbooks each semester. There are times she would break down and cry when guys would make fun of her accent or looks but that seemed to firm her resolve even more to do well. She would relentlessly pursue or pester (depends on your perspective) professors to clarify her doubts. She started out with second class grades and figured out better methods to approach exams and eventually scored first class. There are 2 times that I noticed her take longer than usual (understandably) to bounce back. One was when she lost her father and the other when she did not get a job through campus.

I lost touch with her after coming to the US until a few years later when she located me on the Internet. She had just returned from Italy she said. Her company was sending her around the world on assignments. She enjoyed international travel but loved coming back home to her mothers cooking. She was looking to getting married and would keep in touch.

Happy journey my friend. May the universe shower you with more success and happiness.

 

Thanks Ganges and Anabika for the feedback. SS is an everyday heroine.