Gold medallist with a heart of gold

Vadodara/ Anand: She grew up inside a garage at ‘Bhut ni amli’ near Geeta Mandir state transport (ST) bus stand in Ahmedabad. The garage itself acted as home for Uma Sharma, the eldest of the four siblings, who finished her schooling while studying beneath streetlights.
Sharma, now a college teacher in Vallabh Vidyanagar, has turned into a mentor for street and slum children in Anand.
The 46-year-old lady who is a gold medalist from Gujarat University (GU) has turned a footpath on Sardar Patel Rajmarg in Anand into a classroom for nearly 22 children, for whom she conducts classes on a daily basis.
Earlier, this year, when she was talking a walk on Sardar Patel Rajmarg, she saw some kids playing on the roadside. “The thought of providing them proper guidance and helping them build their career struck my mind,” said Sharma, an ad hoc lecturer at Nalini Arvind Arts College, who has started the roadside classes since June this year.
In her own life, the turning point had come when as a child she overheard conversation of a couple of people outside her father’s garage.
“They meant that wards of uneducated people too remain uneducated. It was then that I decided to pursue higher studies,” said Sharma, who completed her BA from H K Arts College, MA from GU’s Department of Philosophy and PhD from Saurashtra University.
Sharma has to follow a tight schedule which means walking up at 4.45 am, cook food for her family, give five lectures at college, return home and leave again to teach the kids for at least two hours in the evening.
The kids who take lessons from her are in the age group of two to 15 years. Most of them are enrolled in government-run schools. “But their basics are not clear. They don’t know how to read or write. So, I have begun with Gujarati and basic mathematics. I will soon start them teaching English,” she said.