Kipula was a small village in the Koraput district of Orissa. With no more than 6,000 people residing here, the village didn’t boast of many amenities. The people in Kipula made their ends meet by doing odd jobs at the local factories and mills while their children mostly remained uneducated. Lack of education would in turn not fetch them jobs in cities and the standard of living remained just the same. This was a vicious circle. Though kids went to a local primary pathshala (private school usually having a single teacher who owns it), they could not continue their education further despite a high school being available in the nearby Debghar town, as there wasn’t any proper transport system from Kipula. The non-availability of schools in the village was never a concern for the locals though, who had more pressed issues like feeding the many mouths at home, until a girl from Kipula changed everything for them.

Santana was the 4^th daughter of Sadashib and Chhanda Behera. She being the 4^th in line of daughters, her grandmother Shobhalata, cursed her mother Chhanda at her birth and had named the child Santana which meant ‘condolence’. As if to assuage her own wounds of having four grand-daughters in a row, Shobhalata as an act of self-pity at her ill fate named her so. Santana’s three other sisters were named Bandana, Chandana and Sapana by Shobhalata herself. Chhanda, her mother had a premonition of having a daughter again when she was pregnant for the 4^th time, so without telling it to anyone, she had prayed to Lord Jagannath and started fasting once a week so that she got a son this time, but to no avail. Shobhalata had specially come down from  Anandapur, where she lived in the hope of seeing the face of her grandson as she had a dream, unlike Chhanda that she would finally see a son being born in her family. When the local midwife delivered the baby at midnight in their little home, Shadashib and his mother were waiting with baited breaths to hear the ‘good news’.

The lady came out of the delivery room and announced 'it’s a girl'. Shobhalota was crestfallen. In total disbelief she kept staring at the floor of the courtyard. The lady came closer and said, ‘Mother, come see your granddaughter. She is born healthy and looks so beautiful.’ Shobhalota was highly irritated at this and shrugging off the suggestion to go inside, she said with utter disgustion, 'Mate ekutiya chadi diyantu!' (Please leave me alone for sometime).

It was a bright Poornima night when Santana was born; the sky was bright with the moon large, whole and in full bloom. Outside in the courtyard, Shobhalata was crying hoarse over her son Sadashib’s ill fate of now being the father of four daughters; and inside Chhanda was shedding copious tears of helplessness. In her mind she complained to Lord Jagannath. What harm did she do to anyone for facing so much of disgrace? But more than that, she was now worried about what her mother-in-law Shobhalata would tell her. With fear and misery she spent the most difficult night of her life.

Next day morning Chhanda woke up to the horror of not finding her child by her side. Did Shobhalata take her daughter to throw it away at some ditch? What is the crime of that little life? Her thoughts in a maze and her body extremely tired due to the hours of long labour, last night, she pulled herself out of the bed somehow and dragged herself out of the room. She saw Shobhalota curling up the baby in her arms in their courtyard. Her eyes welled up to this sight.

Sobhalata saw Chhanda slouched against the door with her frail body. She quickly came closer. 'Why did you wake up from your bed at this condition Chhanda?' Chhanda was still all tears.

Shobhalata said, 'As you know I was not happy so I didn’t see both of you last night. I will be leaving today in sometime for Anandapur, so thought of seeing your daughter before leaving. She will be called Santana.' Saying so, she left.

With three sisters to give her company, Santana had enough playmates as a child. She was quick to learn things and her memory was very sharp. Her father a labourer at the local paper mill, did not have much time to observe these things but her mother Chhanda did not miss seeing her child having these qualities. She slowly grew up to be a very intelligent and well behaved girl who had a great amount of curiosity to know everything around her. Santana watched and absorbed everything, she wished to soak in every bit of information around her like a sponge.

Just a mile away from their small house with two rooms, there was a Krishna temple. She would accompany her mother to the temple on Saturdays and slowly became a favourite of the priest of that temple for her good behavior and the desire to learn so many things around gods and deities. The priest held ‘kathas’ (spiritual readings) on various episodes of Bhagavad Geeta once or twice a week. Santana would sit rapt in attention, while her mother and few other women would blithely fall asleep listening to the lessons of Geeta, after the days hard work.

Kripashankar Mahapatra, the priest of the temple was a retired man who was one of the first in his times to go to the college at Bhubaneshwar. Due to family conditions and other monetary reasons he could not study further. He had a life of struggle in his youth. With a 12^th pass degree he got a clerk’s job at a private company in nearby Debghar town. He couldn’t sustain his family of four, wife and two children with the meager salary that he received there. Being a Brahmin, he had learnt a few rituals from his father in his youth and so he doubled up as a ‘purohita’ (priest) for households for better sustenance. However, he always encouraged people of Kipula, specially the kids to study hard and make a better living. Men and women alike respected him and referred to him as ‘thakurji’.

One day Santana was sitting at the Krishna temple and was lost in her thoughts. Kripashankar asked her, 'My child, what are you thinking, why are you so lost? Come, have the Prasad.'

'Thakurji, my 5^th grade final exams are nearing. All boys in my class will go to Debghar for high school studies. Ma told me that I will leave school and learn household chores now. I want to study Thakurji.' Her eyes began to moist.

For the past few days, Santana had tried to convince Chhanda that she wishes to study more. Chhanda, an uneducated woman did not understand much about schools and studies. She would ask, 'Santu, what would you do after school? You will have to marry anyway. Look at Bandana, tomorrow a guy is coming to see her, she is 16 now, if we do not start seeing guys for her now, it will be too late. After that we have Chandana and Sapana to marry off. Look at your sisters. They all studied in Harish master's school and then learned household work. You too do the same.'

Kripashankar was in deep agony thinking of the child. He couldn't finish his study, but this little girl despite all odds wishes to, he had to do something. He felt an innate emotion inside, the ardor towards studies that was lying dormant, deep within him surfaced once again. 'I will not let her give up studies like I did'. He thought to himself. 'Santu, my child, if you wish to study, no one can stop you. You will study, no matter what.' He said.

'I will make sure you pass your 10th and 12th through open education system. I will help you enroll to open school and can teach you all Arts subjects till 12th. This way you don't have to travel beyond Kipula and can also study further.' He continued.

Santana was extremely happy but had a tinge of doubt that now lingered over face. 

'What happened Santu? What are you thinking now?' 

'Ma and Baba want me to be at home and learn household chores. I don't want to do that thakurji.' She cried.

 'Ok ok, I will speak to Sadashib and Chhanda, don't worry about that. You just focus on studies from now on'.

She touched Kripashankar's feet and took his blessings.

Santana continued her studies through open schooling system. Sadashib and Chhanda were not so keen initially but after much coaxing by the priest himself, they relented. 

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Santana passed her 12^th exams successfully through open education. The world had already changed a lot around her. She would give private tuitions to many students and earned her pocket money through that. Sadashib and Chhanda were proud that their daughter, a first in the family has passed her 12^th exam with first class marks. 

Now that she passed her 12^th boards successfully, it was time for her to study further. With all her three sisters married, she was the sole bread winner in her family as Sadashiv could hardly go to work due to his acute lung problem.  She understood that a regular course at a university would necessarily mean that she had to leave home, which she couldn’t afford to. She applied for distance learning from Utkal University for her B.A course in Sociology. 

With her excellent marks in 12^th, the university readily accepted her application. But the course fee was higher than she had expected. Also with Sociology as her main subject, she was required to go on field tasks once in a while. She realized she needed extra income for all these; the mere tuition fee wasn’t enough. She started working at a local courier service by the day, gave tuitions by the night and studied late into the nights. Life was tough for Santana, but never once did she complain.

Santana loved her books. Nothing in this universe gave her as much joy as her books would. She remembered firmly what Kripashankar had told her, that if she wished to achieve bigger things in life, she could only do it with the power of education and nothing else. All this while she also had the deep desire to bring about a change in her small village Kipula, she thought day and night about it. It was a thought that eventually turned into a burning desire.

She had enough complains against the entire structure of the society where a girl is forced into marriage as she has nothing better to do. The helpless situation of the girls around her, she realized is because they were never given the chance to study or embrace education, a women with no education almost always found no employment and with no financial independence, a women's life is inevitably only about doing household chores and taking care of others needs. What about her needs? What about her own life? Santana kept thinking about these things everyday and realized that her heart would not rest until she took charge herself and did something to eradicate this social evil. She remembered those childhood temple kathas that thakurji read out to the villagers. 

Arjuna in the Bhagavad Geeta asks Krishna, 'What is Dharma?' Krishna says, 'Dharma is to do the right thing. That which is your duty is your dharma.' Arjuna asks, 'What is the right thing?' Krishna replies, 'That which is good for all is the right thing.'

Santana got the answer now. This lesson that she had learned so many years ago came flashing by her mind. She decided to open her own school that would help needy students of Kupali, anyhow.  No matter what it takes, she resolved to open a school in this village. It is the right thing. It is her ‘Dharma’.

Next day morning she woke up before everyone in the house and left for the temple. Sitting on the stairs outside leading up to the temple, waiting for her thakurji to arrive and open the gates. With her heart beating heavily with hope and aspiration for the future and mind whizzing crazily with nonstop plans of its execution, Santana could hardly contain herself. She looked at her watch for the umpteenth time. It said 5.30 am. She looked eagerly at the road ahead, Kripashankar Mahapatra was nowhere in sight. After a full half an hour, which felt like ten hours for Santana, she saw Kripashankar walking towards the temple. She jumped from the stairs, and ran towards him. Kripashankar was pleasantly surprised seeing Santana at this time of the day. 

'Thakurji, I was waiting for you all this while. Remember I told you about opening a school in this village? I have a plan for that.'

'Ok ok. Let's go inside the temple and then talk about it,' said Kripashankar.

Kripashankar listened to her intently.

'Thakurji? What do you think of this?'

Kripashankar's eyes sunk into some deep thought. He thought for sometime and said in a confused voice, 'What if the trustees don’t allow? I will need to take their permission,' one could sense the concern in his voice.

'I don’t think the trustees will object. They would ask for your permission rather. If the priest of the temple doesn’t have any issue, I don’t think they will have any. And after all, no money is involved here thakurji, it will all be free of cost.' Santana looked at him expectantly.

Kripashankar looked across the length and breadth of the temple area, as if surveying it with his eyes. 

'Are you sure, you can teach in this little space?' he asked.

'Yes, only if you allow. Please don't say no. Whom will I go to? Who will help me if not you thakurji?' 

After few more minutes of contemplation, Kripashankar stood up, so did Santana. His voice was clear and hopeful now, as if a cloud of darkness left the firmament of his mind, making way for bright, sunny possibilities.

'Ok then, I will speak to the trustees of the temple and make sure that there is no issue regarding this. Go, Start your class. What better place to begin a school than in a temple? Lord Krishna is with you. But remember the regular pooja and other temple rituals should not be hampered in anyway,' He smiled merrily.

'Of course not,' thumped Santana. 

'You have taken a big task upon your shoulders my child, may God bless you.' Kripashankar blessed Santana with all his heart.  

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In the following days Santana went door to door beseeching parents of young children to send them to her ‘temple classroom’ for studies. She went categorically to houses where poor parents could not afford to send their kids in school as they did not have any money for fees. Kripashankar sometimes accompanied her to these sessions. They would convince parents across the village why schooling is important for their children, especially for the girl child.

‘If she has to stand up on her own feet one day, she needs to study today’ Santana would often say emphatically trying to instill faith and trust in their hearts and minds. Santana often at the cost of giving up on her modesty would give them her own example. She would tell them how she, born in a poor family is earning and taking care of her parents today, so can their daughter too one day if they give her this one chance of attending the ‘temple classroom’. If they wished to change things for their children, here was their opportunity to do so. When people asked about the location of the classroom, she would delightfully tell them with a big smile on her face, 'The place? It's the temple.'

Temple was a place that people generally associated with safety and sanctity, so it was rather easy for her to coax parents of little older girls to send their wards too. Santana saved money for three months to buy text books and notebooks for different classes and decided to begin her ‘temple classroom’ on the auspicious occasion of ‘Vijaya Dashami’.

Three months went by and finally the Vijaya Dashami day was here. The first batch was scheduled at 10 am after the morning aarti. Santana took part in the morning puja and prayed for the good luck of this new beginning. After the aarti, she quietly started spreading the mattress across the temple floor. She fixed the foldable blackboard with the wooden stand at one corner of the floor. Kripashankar looked at these arrangements and beamed with joy. The temple floor was totally looking like a classroom now, he thought.

Kripashankar said with immense happiness, 'So Santana, your dream of opening a school for the children of Kupali village is now a reality.' 

'Yes thakurji,' she quipped with joy. 'But my dream is much bigger than this. I wish to open a big school one day. My dream is to see every girl of this village educated and independent. My dream is to see a college and then a university coming up here. The road is very long for me thakurji, bless me so that I can fulfill my dream.' She bent low to touch his feet. 

Kripashankar, her mentor, her father figure was moist eyed now. He gave lessons of life to people of the village, but this little girl, he thought, taught him so much.

As they both chatted merrily on the bright possibilities ahead, far away, small girls and boys with their books and pencils were approaching their 'temple classroom'. Their ‘Santu didi’ will teach them a new lesson today. Their laughter and joy spread across the temple road. The joy of education. The joy of freedom.

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P.S.  This story is fictional but the inspiration behind it is not. The story is a tribute to all those noble souls who have worked and continue to work tirelessly to bring about social changes around them, especially in the field of education.