As I travel back into the days of my childhood, shuffling through the memory pages, I see my native village, which most of you probably would’ve never heard about – Shadihari Village. Shadihari village is a part of Sangrur Dist. but is so small & underdeveloped.
I, Amanpreet Kaur, belong to a typical rural village family, my father Rampal Singh is a farmer & mother is a house wife. As a child, I was fortunate enough to be able to move out of my village, for I was admitted to Akal Academy Muktsar, the only school wherein my education could begin to see light, I did my nursery & first class schooling from there, thereafter I was admitted to Akal Academy Cheema Sahib as my family had to move due to family problems. Most of my childhood saw financial family issues, my father sold his land to sponsor my education, if it wasn’t my father & support from my elder brother from Australia, I wouldn’t have been able to be where I stand today; my brother motivated me & gave me a heart to study.
The education, the foundation that Akal Academy run by Kalgidhar Trust Baru Sahib provided me, was such strong that next – after 3rd class I was able to jump to 6th class at Guru Teg Bahadur School in Patran City. My +2 was the best time of my life as I finally was at Baru Sahib where, after completing my +2 in medical from Akal Academy, I was also able to join Akal College of Nursing to pursue my B.Sc. in Nursing. After completing my B.Sc Nursing, I served at the college as a Teacher.
Now, I am currently all prepared to go to Australia to pursue my masters, so I can enhance my skills & give a strong start to my professional career wherein I can serve people. For all of this, I sincerely thank Baru Sahib, there is no parallel to the strength that Baru Sahib has instilled into me. It was for the Blessings, Love & Support of Baru Sahib that a girl like me was able to Top & receive a gold medal alongside scholarship for my graduation.
Now, when I visit my village, I see the difference, I see what I received from Baru Sahib – it’s the finer human qualities, that are I see invisible elsewhere, especially at my native village. I deeply desire development for my village, especially on the education front; I am constantly trying alongside my father to arrange for land in the village through his administration contacts so that an Akal Academy can be built there too.
The difference between children is huge – I see students of Baru Sahib, I see village – on one hand I see children with strong foundation, will power, aim, clear motive & extremely confident English speaking kids & on the other I see my innocent, uninformed & aimless children who seek help. For an instance, I am the only girl in the village who is educated – I get respect for that, but, more than feeling proud about it, I feel the need to inspire parents & children – every time I learn someone has started sending their children to Baru Sahib school, I feel happy. I prepared a stage performance for them & also appeared in Indian Idol famed Davinder Pal Singh’s ‘Vidya Vichari’ video with the same motive.
Akal Academy transforms, they taught us ‘naam simran, nitmen’ – they infuse spirituality & tell us to be good i.e. being at bay from ‘nindya’ (speaking bad about someone) & ‘chugli’ (speaking figuratively to create differences amongst people). I feel happy now that the change is coming, rather transformation is coming, the people in village are doing better now, I am sure other villages are improving too with spread of Akal Academies; people of my village, who get inspired often contact for inquiry, so I am assured it’s all happening everywhere…Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh…
Please do support girls like me so that rural children also get an equal opportunity to study and flourish.
~ Ramandeep Singh