Based on Still I Rise by Maya Angelou                                               

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise I rise I rise.

It was another morning in my college and all of us, the students, had settled down in our benches, it was our physics class. Sharp at 9, he entered the class with a big smile on his face, a book, Concept of Physics by H C Verma in his right hand and a piece of chalk in his left. 

Our physics teacher is one of the best we have in the entire college. A very kind man with a clean mind and eyes that only saw good. He is excellent at what he taught and is also a nuclear physics researcher. 

“Today I won’t be teaching anything, instead would like to tell you all a story”. 

Who wouldn’t be excited if the lecturer chucks a class and tells a story instead? We all clapped our hands and buckled up to listen. And he started....

 “When I was a student, I used to live as a paying guest in an apartment. A middle aged women lived across the hall. She used to leave the house at 7 in the morning and return at 8 in the evening. Whenever she saw us, she used to greet us with a smile and ask about their studies. She had only one pair of clothes which she wore on alternate days. She had a good sense of humour and during festivals she used to join the members of the society and make everyone laugh. She was a blessing for the poor people, whenever she had a little food leftover she used to distribute it among them, often wrapped them in blankets as well, especially in the winters. No one knew much about her. 

One day we friends were out for a walk and saw her buying some groceries from a local shop. Soon, we realised that she had got into a verbal fight, and saw her return from the shop crying. A man who was walking by suddenly turned to her and offered her some water. The man packed her in a taxi and sent her home. We stood there trying to understand what had actually happened. The man turned to us and started enquiring who were we. He soon realised that we were known to her, the woman used to often mention our names in her conversations with him. 

He finally came to the point and told us that this woman had gone through tough times in her life. 

"Her parents forced her into marrying a useless fellow who got her pregnant and divorced her. To make ends meet, she started her own business, an organization for the benefit of women and children and borrowed some money from the shopkeeper. She used to work day and night to make ends meet and finally had her organization running smoothly. This organization went around the city in search of helpless women and children and rescued them. In one of the instances, she had rescued kidnapped children who were forced to work for the kidnappers. The women with her team along with police saved the children. After a few months she became a mother of a beautiful girl. Years passed but her expenses kept increasing and so did shopkeeper’s interest for her loan. One day her child did not return back from her school, worried she went searching for her but couldn’t find her anywhere. She went to the police station to lodge a complaint and found that her child was kidnapped and killed by the same kidnappers from whom she had rescued the child labourers. She was devastated, she had loans to pay, no food to eat, no daughter to cook for. 

She did not step out of her house for few weeks. One day she just got out of her house and went back to working on what she really wanted to do. The only that was troubling her was the loan and the loss of her daughter. She always said that it was just her daughter's death that she knew of, there may be many more who were killed every day and no one get to know.” 

We friends were all wonder struck at how brave she was to handle all this and yet keep a smile on her face. We spoke to the society and the neighboring ones and gathered some funds for the organization which was given anonymously. 

We all graduated, and moved on in our lives, but respect for her remained forever in our lives,” Our Sir sighed. 

He wanted us to know one important lesson in life, 

Maybe that woman never received public appreciation nor found a mention in the media for her bravery and courage, but she is living a much more meaningful life than most of us. She taught us never to give up and rise through all the odds and do what is right.