She mentioned that she did not receive any award or recognition. However, he shared her photo along with other students on Facebook because when he visited the school and interacted with the students, he witnessed the passion and determination in their eyes to learn mathematics and the eagerness to explore new concepts.
I am 24 years old, and the youngest of a family of five. I have an older sister and three brothers. My father is a farmer, my mother a homemaker. We lived in a small but beautiful village; we were poor, with very little money and no job security, and there were a lot of mouths to feed. My father had a serious accident – a bullock cart crushed his lower body – and we had little land, so things when I was little were very hard. And yet I have been so lucky to have in my life three heroes who have between them given me the opportunities I am now seizing as I forge my career and my future.
The first was my father, who believed passionately in the value of education and despite our circumstances always encouraged me to pursue my education. He supported me and believed I would be able to make something of my life.
When I was little I went – as we all did – to the local government school near our village. I was there for two years until my older brother heard about PPES in 2010. I started there in the 6th grade – I went with some other girls from our village on the free school bus. Now there are two bus loads of girls going there from our community!
I was hard working but shy and underconfident. I got low grades at first but I gradually found my feet and in 8th grade I was second in the year, loving school and the lessons. In 9th grade I was torn between choosing maths or home sciences. We had a maths teacher come to take a class when he was considering whether to take up a role in the school. Ashok Khugshan, my second hero. He later posted on Facebook, some years afterwards, below a picture of me (She mentioned that she did not receive any award or recognition. However, he shared her photo along with other students on Facebook because of which he visited the school and interacted with the students, he witnessed the passion and determination in their eyes to learn mathematics and the eagerness to explore new concepts.)
that he joined the school because of me and students like me – in the demo class he ran we were so full of questions and curiosity, he saw we had so much potential. After he joined he ran Maths Clubs for us, for anyone who was interested in exploring the subject. He persuaded me to choose the maths option rather than home sciences, promising that I could just try it for a month to see. Of course I loved it. I loved all my learning. I knew I wanted to study further. I got good scores in my 10th grade but in my 12th I just missed the top grades, which meant that I didn’t have the 70 mark I needed to pass the primary stage for the HCL programme in Tech-BEE I wanted to study.
The representative for the HCL course came to the school. I knew I had missed the primary score I needed and as a result I was refused the next stage interview. That should have been the end of the application, but I didn’t go home – instead I went to talk to him. I begged him to give me a chance to prove myself in the interview. I told him that I was certain my grades did not define me or my potential, it would be my talents and my skills that would do that. He left that day without any change to my position, but when he returned another day I begged again to be given a chance to show what I was made of. This time I was allowed and as a result I was interviewed by a lady, Paroul I remember her name was: she recommended that an exception be made for me to be put forward to the next stages. After I was called for the final test I got my results a few days later. I had passed, along with one other girl from PPES, and I became an HSL trainee in software engineering. In 2018 I became an HCL employee.
The school gave me that confidence to argue for myself.
During my training at HCL, I was paid a monthly grant of INR 10k per month, so I was no burden on my family and I could support myself. Although my father was so supportive of my training he would have struggled to have financed me without that grant. In addition, HCL offered all those on the training programme, which it was running for the first time, a loan of 2.5 lakhs to fund our studies. In the event, the first batch of trainees did so well and made such good progress that HCL waived the loan for us. So I started my working life debt free, and was shortly offered a three year contract – but I knew I didn’t have a degree and I felt confident that I could achieve more academically, so in addition to taking up the job offered I enrolled in a college close to Noida, lived there and for three years I combined study in the mornings from 9am til 1pm with an office shift from 4.30 til 2am. In 2022 I completed my BSC in Computer Applications.
I was at HCL for 5.5 years before taking up my new and current role with NTT Data Business Solutions. I have moved to Pune. I am further from my family of course and I miss them, but change is good, it offers so many new opportunities for learning and development. It’s a challenge but I am enjoying it. I’m so excited about my future. My dream is to be CEO of my own company.
PPES was the best thing that happened to me. Without it I know I would have been married years ago and I would have children, be living in my in laws house, not making or taking my own decisions. Someone else would control my life. As it is it is completely different for me – I support my family, I have control of my life and my future, I have goals and I know I can succeed. I may marry if I find someone with the same outlook and vibes as me – but it will be my choice and I know my father will support that. He and I are very close – we speak often about all sorts of things, he seeks my advice and we discuss budgets, repairs, decisions on family matters.
I know that my sister – the eldest – had less options than I did. She is married with children. She works as a cook to support her family, her husband is currently unemployed. Her daughter is in PPES and I support her education – she is doing so well. The education of my nephews and nieces is something I can support and influence and I encourage them all to take it seriously. I want them to make their own path and they know I am there behind them to support them. It’s wonderful to see my niece thriving at PPES and getting top grades; my nephews are in private school but in truth education is a business for so many schools – you don’t get anything special, and I can clearly see how different PPES was. The private schools are academically dry, it’s rote learning and results driven, unchallenging and grades focussed. In PPES subjects were alive – science, maths, geography – so often taught as linked to our lives and experiences, to our future. I learned about parabolas in Maths with examples of a football kicked and soaring into the air. Our subjects were exciting – I learned to debate, to communicate, to articulate my thoughts. I remember learning about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and prepared a speech for assembly on them, understanding that these were not dry statements but relevant living goals for all our futures. We were always looking at newspaper articles, speeches and environmental issues, and being encouraged to discuss and debate them. We were encouraged in everything. I loved sport and activity. Before my first lesson at 9.45 and instead of assembly I was allowed to go for a run before my maths class – I would arrive at class buzzing, happy, excited. It was the best feeling. School was my second home, truly. It offered so much, asked for nothing in return, though of course we all know what we got from it and I want to give back what I can. I am so proud to see my picture on the walls of the school. I love to go back at Diwali and other times and celebrate my school community – and see Sam Sir, the third of my three stepping stones in life. He’s my greatest hero.
My community was so suspicious at first of the school. They didn’t trust that it was free with no strings attached – they used to say to my parents, they will sell your daughter! Imagine that! But what has been done for me has transformed the thinking and culture of our neighbourhood – from never believing in education for girls and never recognising that girls had potential as well as boys, it’s now so different. You cannot imagine the change to the mindset of a small rural area like mine – and it’s from seeing students like me and what we have made of ourselves with the school’s support. Not just my village – the whole area. The impact is huge.
As I grew up we only had one room – now my family is debt free, we have two houses side by side where the family can live together. I can provide for my parents, can help them enjoy themselves with travel and visits to relatives or festivals, I can provide things if they are needed. The houses are full of small children and they are happy places. My parents are told by their neighbours “we are very proud of your daughter, she has entirely changed the trajectory of your family”. They ask me for advice for their own children. Yes, they still ask me when I am going to be married and have children, but I tell them, I’m planning for my Masters degree right now. That keeps them quiet. And I know that my father, my teacher, and Sam Sir are all standing behind me saying, make your own path, if it’s what you want, go for it.
Editor’s note: it is very hard to overstate how much energy and passion and drive was present in this interview. I had to slow Anju down in order to keep up with my written record, the words poured out of her, and virtually everything written down here was from her own words. She is the most articulate, lovely young woman, with an undoubtedly bright future, and no one should be in any doubt that this is Sam Singh’s legacy – individuals, families and communities saved and changed utterly by the vision he had and the belief he was so passionately committed to, that you can change communities for better and forever by educating girls and empowering women, and giving them the opportunity to fulfil their potential. I have written up this interview the day that we learned of his death and I hope it stands as my salute to the most remarkable man, one I have been privileged to know and to love.
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