(Left) Pawan outside his father’s stall in Ludhiana; Vivek at the pharmacy in Doraha. Express photo by Gurmeet Singh
In the last few days, Pawan Kumar Kanojia read news reports on the joy of parents of toppers in the Class XII state board examinations. He sighed a little when he got his results on Saturday — 83.6 per cent in the non-medical stream, but a smile broke through nevertheless.
“Who says I am not a topper? I am. I have to become something in life now and ensure that my father doesn’t have to iron somebody’s clothes and struggle day in and day out to pay my fees,” said Pawan, 17, whose father irons clothes in Janta Enclave of Dugri.
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“I too thought — who cares for those who get less than 90 per cent these days? Even 95 is considered low. Nothing less than first rank makes news. But every mark in my 83.6 is for my father. No one will ever know that. I used to be in a government school till eighth grade but then he sent me off to a CBSE school seeing my interest in studies,” said Pawan a student of BCM Basant City, who also delivers clothes to his father’s clients. “My aim is clear. I am looking at civil engineering.”
Eighteen-year-old Vivek Singh is an orphan. His mother had died six years ago and his father died in a rail accident last year, making him the head of his family — his 15-year-old sister Anjali who studies in Arya Outri Pathshala. He scored 77 per cent in the Class XII state board examinations in vocational stream.
“Being a topper doesn’t mean much for me. I earn Rs 3,000. I pay for my sister’s schooling which comes to about Rs 300 and the rest goes into the household,” said Vivek, a student of government senior secondary school Doraha. “People advised me to drop out and work for my sister, but what is the value of an illiterate in society? Nothing. Now I will pursue a diploma in textile dyeing,” he said.
Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab.
Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab.
She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC.
She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012.
Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab.
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