50-yr-old gets better exam result than daughter

Bathinda : Fifty-year-old Surjeet Singh of Sardargarh village (Bathinda) appeared in the Class XII open school examination this year and through sheer dedication and hard work cleared all subjects in the first semester with good marks. Surjeet had appeared in the examination along with his 22-year-old daughter, Manpreet Kaur, who had inspired him to resume his studies. Ironically, she could not clear all subjects in the examination in one go. Though she is upset over her own result, she feels proud that her father cleared the examination in the very first attempt. Son of a Dalit landless peasant, Surjeet wanted to carry on his studies after Class X in 1977 but the poor economic condition of the family did not let him study further and he had to join his father in the fields.

The unfulfilled desire remained in his heart for decades.When his daughter had to appear in the Class XII examination, she insisted that Surjeet apply for the same in the open school examinations of the Punjab School Education Board this year. Finding it a good opportunity, he deposited the fee of two candidates, one of his own and the other of his daughter. That day Surjeet made a promise to himself that he would clear all subjects in one go. He started getting up early in the morning to study and went to bed late at night. Without letting his job (librarian at the Teachers’ Home) suffer, he studied hard. Besides,he kept motivating his daughter to work hard and both helped each other in case of any difficulty. ”When I was about to enter the examination hall with my daughter, the gatekeeper stopped me from going inside. Inspecting my admit card, the gatekeeper got surprised and wished me good luck,” he said.  He appeared in the first semester of the Class XII examination and luck smiled on him today when he received information that he had cleared all subjects. Surjeet has now set a goal that he would be a law graduate one day.“At present, I am poor, a daily wage employee getting only Rs 100 per day,” he said.