After she failed in her grade ten examinations, Aarti Naik would've ended up being a domestic help like most of her classmates but chose to fight the situation she was in. Today she teaches schoolgirls from her neighbourhood for free lest they fail in their examinations and in life.
Sometime in June 2003, when she received her State Secondary Certificate (SSC) examination mark sheet, Aarti Naik was crestfallen. She had failed in two subjects -- Social Sciences and Maths.
Her father, Dattatreya had enough of these new fangled ideas about educating the girl child. So he did what he always wanted to do -- he put a stop to her education.
During the next three years Aarti Naik stayed at home. She rarely stepped out of the house -- her father was dead against the idea of women crossing the threshold -- and spent most of her time making flowers out of satin ribbons.
Three years later, she decided to re-appear for the papers she had failed in.
When the mark sheet came out, she couldn't believe it was hers.
Aarti Naik had scored 70 on 140 in Maths and 110 on 140 in Social Sciences -- the most she'd ever seen in her life.
As she convinced her father to let her study further, she realised her greatest weakness was that even though she knew what she had to study, no one taught her how she should go about it.
So, in September 2008 Aarti Naik decided to start a free-of-charge coaching class of sorts where she could teach schoolgirls from her locality to learn better.
Today, the organisation aptly called Sakhi (or confidant) is almost three years old and operates from Naik's home itself.
It has 28 students, whose life it directly touches.
But in little and unknown ways it is also touching the lives of Aarti Naik and her family and those of the families around her.
This is her story.
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