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Publication: Punjaboutlook.com
Date: Mar 21, 2016
URL:   http://www.punjaboutlook.com/wp/back-home-heroes-amongst-us-bina-kumari/

HOME is back. Thanks largely to several sessions of Accue-Pressure and Yogic Exercises added to months of medication to heal the spinal Lumber disorder, at last, feeling fit enough to sit across my desk and resume the deep-rooted passion, my weekly coloumn: BACK HOME. The silver lining is that it gave enough time to review and criss-cross with some of my highly valuable friends and regular readers.

 Often, while discussing the current national scenario, one question that baffles us all is – what are our top academic Institutions up to, producing fake Heroes? Most agree , willy nilly, that our society is certainly face to face with something very serious to worry about. With the kind of unimaginable slogans tearing the ears, and anti-national smoke spreading and clouding the eternal truth of India, it is of paramount importance to mirror the good and the positive to counter the negativity being dished out by most of our Media, in the name of liberalization and unbridled freedom, cares simply for their own TRP rather than anything else. And we have got to start searching to highlight and underline what really deserves to be highlighted and underlined in the interest of the generation next.

 Hence, here is the new series : Heroes Amongst Us. The Real Heroes have to be found and presented. It could be anyone belonging to any segment, any section of our society, that could make our Nation feel proud and our Motherland feel privileged and elated. For sure, there is no dearth of those having grit and grate to succeed under any circumstances.

 Today, Let’s begin the new series with the following Headline from the Indian Express, a moving story from a small town, Madhepura, Bihar, deserving to be quoted in full:

 “Dumped for studying, woman and baby stay at exam centre in Bihar”

Bina Kumari appears for her Class X exam.

 These days, Bina Kumari is usually the first to make it to the exam hall. “That’s because I stay at the centre,” she says. For the last three days, ever since the 18-year-old and her year-old baby were allegedly thrown out of her husband’s home in Bihar’s Madhepura district because she had insisted on writing her exams, Bina has been staying at the Udakishanganj Higher Secondary College, which is a centre for the Class X Bihar School Examination Board. The Madhepura administration was so moved by her story that they made arrangements for her and her baby to stay in a room in the campus.
 By the time Bina sits down for her exam, she has already packed in quite a bit. She is up at 6 am, prepares for the day’s exam before her baby wakes up, bathes and feeds the child and does some last-minute cramming before making a dash for the exam hall.

 Speaking to The Indian Express from her examination centre, Bina says, “I failed two papers last year. Ever since, I have been spending a lot of time preparing for my exams. I want to be the first matriculate in my family.”
 She got married About two years ago. Soon after their wedding, Mukesh moved to Punjab, where he works as a labourer.

“My husband doesn’t know I have been thrown out of the house. I don’t have a phone and I don’t know his phone number either,” she says.

 Bina says her husband’s family — her mother-in-law, her brother-in-law and his wife — wasn’t happy with her because she insisted on studying. So on Monday, when she went home after one of her exams, she and her baby were thrown out of the house.

 Bina’s in-laws work as labourers and sell milk for a living. “My brother-in-law would shout at me for studying, saying that when other members of the family were happy cutting grass and clearing cow dung, why was I hell-bent on studying.”

 Bina says she could have stayed at her parents’ home to attend the exams but that would have meant travelling 15 km everyday, leaving her infant behind.

 Though no formal case has been lodged against Bina’s in-laws, they have been absconding since the local media reported the incident.

 Bina Kumari deserves salute from the nation for showing her courage and self-confidence in achieving the goal set by her despite all the odds against her.

 Salute also to the un-named official who called up the helpline and also gave Rs.200 to encourage her to complete her matriculation.

 Salute also to the college staff who help her with her baby while she is writing her exam.

 Last but not the least, Salute also to the Magistrate A K Srivastava at the examination centre. “ We are very impressed with the way she took on her in-laws to pursue her studies. We do not know how well she has been dong in her exams but the fact that she rebelled for the sake of education itself is a success story,” Said Mr Srivastava.

Hopefully, heroes like Bina Kumari interest the readers, and, find them worthy of circulation far and wide spreading awareness about such courageous children of Maa Bharti.