Udaipur : Hard work and perseverance has paid off well for Sonal Sharma (26), a girl from a middle class family residing in PratapNagar area of the city here. Sonal , the second of four children, born to a milkman Khyali Lal Sharma has qualified to become a judge in her first attempt at the RJS examination 2018.
She never attended a coaching center or received tutions as her father couldn’t afford it.
Sonal, who wakes up at 4am everyday helps her father in milking the cows, cleaning their sheds, collecting the dung and even distributing milk in the colony homes. She cycled to college and spent hours in the library making notes as she could not afford to buy the expensive books. Recently, on December 22, Sonal had received 3 gold medals at the MLSU convocation for topping in BALLB and LLM examinations. On Wednesday, she got the High Court’s notification on admitting the waiting list candidates in the selection list of qualified ones since 7 of the selected ones denied to join the Rajasthan judicial services.
“The result of the exam was announced in November 2019. We were sure of Sonal’s selection but for her bad luck that she fell just 1 mark short in the general cutoff list and was put in the waiting list” Satyendra Singh Sankhla, Sonal’s mentor told . Later it was known that 7 candidates did not join, and so Sonal filed a writ with the High Court in September this year and finally got inducted with 7 others for the vacant seats.
“My parents have really worked very hard to give the best education to us siblings. My father wakes up daily at 4 am and sleeps past midnight. He spent all his life milking cows and selling it to raise us, he never took a day’s off from the tiring schedule. He took loans many times for our educational expenses but he never complained. Now I can give them a comfortable life” says Sonal. The girl who helps her dad in his business, studied in the corner of the cow shed during her RJS preparations. Her study table is made of empty oil cans on which she reads and writes.
“Most of the time my chappals would be smeared with the cow dung. When I was in school, I felt ashamed to tell that i came from a milkman’s family but now I feel proud of my parents” she says. Sonal’s elder sister is a translator with CAG in Agartala while her brother is pursuing a degree in Media studies. Sonal was the Rajasthan topper in Economics and India topper in Hindi subjects in the 12th CBSE