Bhopal, August 04:
Vanisha, 16, a student of Carmel Convent, BHEL
, was battling shock and agony when her schoolmates were studying for the exams. “I lost Papa and Ma within a week. There was complete darkness before me. I felt I had lost everything in my life,” Vanisha told.
But then she looked at her younger brother. “I suddenly realized I was all he had. At this age, I had become his father and mother. I couldn’t let myself fall apart. I had to stay strong, stay focused,” she recalled.
“I’ll be the reason for your pride…”
Vanisha willed herself to go from grief to acceptance to fightback. “My father wanted to see me in IIT
or crack UPSC and serve the nation. His dream is my dream now,” she said.
Vanisha scored perfect 100 in English, Sanskrit, science and social science, and 97 in maths.
“To live your dreams, I shall rise up on my own…”
Her father Jeetendra Kumar Pathak was a financial advisor and mother Dr Seema Pathak was a government schoolteacher.
The last time she saw them alive was when they left for hospital together, telling her ‘see you soon’. “That day is still raw in my mind. My parents had told me they would be back soon after their checkup. But they never returned,” said Vanisha. “I spoke to Ma the last time on May 2. She died on May 4. My relatives didn’t tell me as Papa was still in hospital.” said Vanisha.
I had to leave past, be strong for my brother: Vanisha
I spoke to Ma the last time on May 2. She died on May 4. My relatives didn’t tell me as Papa was still in hospital. I spoke with him for the last time on May 10, not knowing it would be the last time. He died on May15. Only then did my relatives tell me that I had lost both parents. I could not even see my mother’s body,” said Vanisha.
‘Won’t let pain overcome me, I’ll stand tall’
She had never felt helplessness before. Never understood what it meant to be ‘devastated’. And never had she felt the “strength of responsibility”.
“One day, I saw my brother Vivan and realised that I had to be strong for him. I had to leave the past and move on. Every day, in every little thing, I always miss my parents. Whenever it wells up, I write a poem,” said Vanisha, her voice steady through what must be a whirlwind of emotion. Vanisha and her brother now live with their maternal uncle Dr Ashok Kumar, a professor at Govt MVM College in Bhopal. “Vanisha is an outstanding personality,” said her uncle.
The only way is forward, says the fighter. “Every moment now, I am living to make my parents’ dream possible…I will stand tall.”
