Poverty and one’s family background do not always hinder educational achievement, as N. Sonu, an orphan, has proved. Sonu, who lives in ‘Makkala Dhama’ of Sparsha Trust at Devanahalli, Bengaluru Rural District, secured 87.66% marks in II PU Science stream this year and hopes to become a software engineer.
Ten years ago, she was begging with her father in front of Gundanjaneya Temple at Sanjeevanagar, Hebbal. At five, she had migrated to Bengaluru with her father after her mother’s demise ten years ago. They stayed on the outskirts of the city and depended on construction work for livelihood.
Following complaints of her father assaulting her in an inebriated state by the neighbours to the police, her father took her and shifted to Gundanjaneya Temple at Sanjeevanagar in the city. Both of them started begging in front of the temple and took shelter there at night.
A volunteer from Sparsha Trust found the girl in front of the temple while she was begging and rescued her. They spoke to her father and took her to the Trust’s residential home. Sonu was admitted directly to Class 3 in the Government Higher Primary school at Sahakar Nagar and she studied there up to Class 8.
However, her father died when she was in Class 8. The Trust took over complete care of Sonu and put her in Vivekananda Vidyavardhaka School for the further studies. She studied Classes 9 and 10 there.
Without coaching
Sonu studied PU in Pragathi Girls PU College, Vijayapura, Devanahalli taluk and in the II PU results which were announced on Wednesday, she scored 526 out of 600 without any additional coaching. Incidentally, she had also achieved 602 (96%) marks out of 625 in the Class 10 examination.
“All credits of my achievement should go to Sparsha Trust. I didn’t take any tuition and the faculties in our college helped me a lot to get this score. Now I am concentrating on the CET-2024 to get good ranking in the engineering stream. I have a big dream to become a software engineer. I will take up Computer Science Engineering,” Sonu said.
Apart from having a good academic track record, she is also good at painting, dancing and sports.
Speaking to The Hindu, Gopinath, Managing Trustee of the Trust said, “When she came to our residential home ten years ago, we never imagined that she would achieve so much. Sonu is a real achiever and role model for everybody. We will support Sonu to complete her higher education.”
