People

Suguna: A Visually Impaired Teacher Who Is An Inspiration To Many!

Braveheart, Warrior, Beautiful!

 

Her husband could no longer converse and exhibit social intelligence after a major bout of fits, due to which he found it hard to work anymore. Suguna with her 40-days-old baby in hand would just board from train to train selling candies to make a living. In 2007, she gave birth to her daughter Supriya, an ambitious little girl, already contemplating a career as a pediatrician.

“However, things were tense inside of me. With two kids, rent, food and much more, it worried me if this business would ever fulfill our basic needs,” Suguna remembers with a heavy heart. That is when she decided to use the little gold her parents gifted her at her wedding. She says, “I wanted to study English but I was told that studying English in Correspondence wouldn’t be an easy task at all and being a Saurashtrian, I decided to take the language I was the weakest at – Tamil.”

With the help of her husband’s friend, Suguna enrolled into Anna University through correspondence and successfully completed her Bachelor of Arts in Tamil. Following that, she completed her Master of Arts and her B.Ed, all the while selling candies at the railway station. During her last examination, she was asked to pay a fee of Rs.10,000 failing which she would not be able to appear for the exams. Her friends from college pooled money towards this and she successfully passed the qualification of what she always wanted to become – a teacher.

That’s when Maatram Foundation found this dynamo of a woman and decided to give her a job. Within a week, she was called in for a surprise interview at the Mahindra World School and was recruited by the principal to teach the students of the second, third and the fourth grade. She says, “I was anxious at first. I scolded my rather calm husband not knowing what else to do (she laughs). However, the principal loved me and today all the students listen quietly when they know that their favorite ‘Suguna teacher’s class is in session.”

Suguna’s story of vanquishing misery to take on life and all its curveballs is perhaps the best teacher by itself.

 

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