The Himalayan Girl

A girl named Megha lived with her father in a village in the foothills of the Himalayas. She was ten years old. Her mother died when she was two years old.  Her father grew up loving her. Her father worked hard throughout the day so that he could raise Megha well. But his economic condition was very bad. He wanted Megha to be very educated and serve the society by becoming self-sufficient. Megha always thought that she would be able to help her father.

Time passed and Megha passed class five but had to go to school far away from class six. She had to travel five kilometres to get to school. She used to get very tired to come, but she used to study very diligently after coming home, so that in future she could help her father and according to his wish to be helpful to the society.

On the way to the school, there was a dense forest. One day while resting in the forest, Megha found a captivating smell which she reached for that plant and brought her leaves and small plant home. She brought some other plants as well and planted them in a bed.  They were aromatic and medicinal plants which are used in various diseases, in scenting the environment and in beverages.

Megha obtained information about these medicinal plants and prepared a record and got new information from the elders and teachers and grew the plants near her house. In this task, her father also started helping her and people from far and wide started coming to him to get saplings and started benefiting from the plants and used to give some money as a gift. In this way, this work gradually became a means of livelihood for her father, with the service of the society, due to this her father got engaged in the work with a lot of interest and he started getting a good livelihood. Now her education requirements were met.  Good people used to come to her to get plants. Megha discussed them a lot and used them to improve herself.  In this way, she passed 12th and got scholarship.

There was a system in the city far away from the village for further studies. But Megha did not want to leave her father and did not want to leave her studies.  Meanwhile, the District Magistrate of the district, after hearing the discussion about her medicinal plants and aromatic plants, decided to come to her house. For this, various officials arranged other arrangements in the village regarding her program. Cleaned the way, water, electricity, ration. Everything was arranged so that there was no complaint. Seeing all this, she was also very curious as to how the District Magistrate is, whose information was corrected only after the arrival.

Finally, the day came when the District Magistrate reached her house and like other people, Megha also talked and discussed with the District Magistrate and made him aware of her medicinal knowledge.  The District Magistrate influenced by Megha, arranged her graduate classes at home through distance education.

Now she could study further. On seeing the District Magistrate, this question came in her mind and she asked the District Magistrate that if she too could become a District Magistrate like him. The District Magistrate said that if you study very hard and diligently, you will definitely become a District Magistrate. She was very happy to hear this and she had started preparing for graduation as well as preparing to become a Collector. With inspiration and guidance, one day Megha was taking care of medicinal plants, her father told her that she had passed the District Magistrate’s Examination.

“Today your dream is fulfilled by your hard work and dedication. Today your mother will also be very happy and I hope that wherever you go the people are very happy with you.”

A story by Anumeha Chandola