Mangalore: A determined Geetha Bai takes SSLC exam

The Hindu

Mangalore, 06 April 2011: On Tuesday, Geetha Bai Ullal, the 36-year-old international power-lifter, wrote the SSLC mathematics examination at the Ganapathi High School in the city.

 

She sells plastic carry bags in a fish market here for a living.

 

A friend convinced her to appear for the SSLC examination as she had been told she could not get a government job for want of minimum educational qualification.

 

 

Accordingly, she decided to write the SSLC examination this year. The last time she wrote an exam was when she was in the ninth standard, several years ago.

 

It was her friend Keerthi D.K., an employee at the Women’s Protection Cell (WPC) in the women’s police station in Kundapura, who persuaded her to appear for the SSLC examination.

 

“She was determined to make me write the SSLC examination. She told me not to worry too much about getting high marks.

 

“She asked me to just go and write the exam without leaving any question unanswered,” Ms. Geetha Bai told The Hindu.

 

She said: “My heart was in kabaddi (when she was in the ninth standard. We were very poor. Whenever I participated in the events, I would get food and some money, which meant a lot to me. Sports gave me more satisfaction than attending classes. I did not see why I needed education. I thought I would focus on sports and left school,” Ms. Geetha Bai said.

 

She hopes to get a government job by clearing the SSLC and higher examinations so that she could be financially independent. She had also staked her claim to the “Ekalavya Award”. She had met many officials and even Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who had promised her “something would be done”, but nothing had been done. She could speak Kannada, Tulu, Tamil, Telugu, Beary, and broken Hindi and English. She now wanted to learn to speak English fluently, she said.

 

After finishing the Kannada exam on April 1, she said: “Kannada exam was not tough and I wrote whatever I could. But mathematics does not get into my head.”