Dev Patel with his mother. (Express)
RETURNING TO studies after a gap of 20 years was no mean task for 36-year-old Sushma Ombale, a homemaker and mother of two. And yet, she scored 61 per cent in her Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam, more than her 15-year-old son.
“After completing class VIII, I had to give up my studies to take care of my ailing mother. This was around 1997. Then I got married in 2000 and the wish to complete my education was left behind,” said Sushma, a resident of Thane.
In 2017, Sushma’s son Sanket entered class X in an English medium school and started encouraging his mother to take the exam. Her husband, Vijay, too, vouched to help. Convinced, she set out to take the SSC exam in Marathi as a private candidate.
“I didn’t take any tuitions, just studied the textbooks that I got from a relative. In case of doubts, I approached my husband,” said Sushma. “She didn’t need much help, except in Math. She did it all by herself, without any tuitions and coaching classes. And now Sushma has made the whole family proud,” said Vijay, who works in the production line of a unit in MIDC in Koparkhairane.
While their son Sanket scored 52 per cent , Sushma has managed a first-class score and is planning to continue her education in the Arts stream. In yet another example of perseverance, a single mother’s hard work has helped her son to score 95 per cent in the board exam.
“All credit goes to my mother,” said Dev Patel, 16, a student of Swami Vivekanand International School in Kandivali.
After Dev’s father died of a heart attack almost 10 years ago, his mother Deepali started working as a cook at neighbouring residential complexes to keep the two of them going.
They now live in the slums of Charkop village in Kandivali. “My education is completely assisted by local NGOs and some other benefactors at whose houses my mother works. She has never made me feel that the fees were high or that we couldn’t afford it,” said Dev, who has already started preparing for engineering entrance examinations.
An emotional Deepali told The Indian Express that it was a proud moment for her.