Ara hawker's daughter ranks 8th in state Board's ICom

Ara: Where there's a will, there's a way, they say. Radha Kumari proved the adage true when this daughter of a street hawker notched up eighth rank in the state in the ICom examination, conducted by the Bihar School Examination Board this year.
The mood was upbeat at the dingy house of this teenager at Shital Tola in this district HQ town of Bhojpur, 60km from Patna, after the results were out on Tuesday evening."My father never made me feel that spending on my education was an issue for him," said the Maharaja College student whose father pedals to villages on the outskirts of the town to sell toffees and earn a living for his family of eight members.
"I expected to do well, but that I would make it to Top-10 never even occurred to my mind," a beaming Radha said as she attributed her achievement to the unflinching faith of her parents and teachers in her. "My father always tells me obstacles can be used as stepping stones of success," the fourth among six siblings told TOI on Wednesday.
Radha Kumari has scored nearly 81%, fetching 404 out of 500 marks. Her father Ram Dev Prasad, a native of Lakshmipur near Sinha village of Bhojpur district, has been living at Ara in a rented accommodation just to provide education to his offsprings.
"We pay Rs 3,000 as rent for this two-rrom house to our landlord," said Radha's mother Pushpa Devi, a housewife who like her husband has passed Class VIII.That the parents could not study due to certain family odds, is the prime reason for their stress on their children's education. Their eldest daughters -- Vindhyawasini and Gayatri -- supplement their father's earning by giving private tuitions after passing BA (Economics Honours) with a first division. They also wish to do postgraduation.
Radha's other elder sister Veena has written part II examination of BSc (Maths Hons) while younger sister Anjali and brother Jai Govind are students of Classes X and VII respectively. Radha aspires to do chartered accountancy for which she said she would start preparing after taking admission to BCom.