Sangeeta and Susmita have tiffin in school. Picture by Palash Debnath

Krishnagar, Aug. 3: Sangeeta and Susmita Sarkar leave their home in Bethuadahari every morning, dressed in blue-and-white uniforms, for the same school. Sangeeta is in Class XI, Susmita in VI.

Sangeeta, 30, is also Susmita’s mother.

Years ago, Sangeeta had left school after Class VIII because her father was poor and had to marry her off. But the mother of two girls in the Nadia village, 130km from Calcutta, missed going to school. Her urge to go back to class grew as she taught her daughters the alphabets.

Two years ago, Sangeeta enrolled with the Netaji Subhas Open University. She cleared Madhyamik with 63 per cent marks this year with some help from a private tutor. Last month, she joined Bethuadahari Girls’ High School in Class XI.

Every morning, Sangeeta prepares her younger daughter Rina, a Class III student, for her school. She then cooks for the family. After that she puts on her blue-bordered white sari and, daughter Susmita by her side, leaves for class.

The sight first struck the villagers as ridiculous.

“They laughed at me when I started going to school with my daughter. ‘How can you go to school wearing a uniform along with your daughter?’ they would ask me. But I told them I didn’t care. It’s studying that matters the most to me,” Sangeeta said.

Tarak Sarkhel, a middle-aged grocer, admitted that he and other villagers found it all a bit odd. “It was a strange sight — a mother and her daughter in school uniform. We told Sangeeta not to make a laughing stock of herself at her age. But we now appreciate her determination and are proud of her,” Sarkhel said.

Sangeeta said: “My father was a poor farmer. He had to stop my education and marry me off. But my husband is a good man and he encouraged me to continue studying.”

Husband Ashwini, 35, “could not speak for a few minutes” when Sangeeta told him she had enrolled herself in the open university.

Ashwini, who earns a living treating sick people although he is not qualified to, said he could not believe his ears at first but soon realised she meant it. “She can study as long as she likes,” he said.

After the Madhyamik results were out in May, Sangeeta went to the headmistress of Bethuadahari Girls’ High School. Ratna Dutta, the headmistress, said she was surprised when Sangeeta approached her.

“She told me, ‘Didi ami apnar school e portey chai (madam, I want to study in your school)’. I knew she was the mother of one of my students and was pleasantly surprised. I took a look at her mark sheet and saw she had got a first division,” Dutta said.

She consulted the other teachers and decided to admit Sangeeta in the arts stream. Her subjects are political science, history, education, English and Bengali. Ashwini has bought her a schoolbag.

Biswanath Mondal, the district inspector of schools, said an institution could admit a student as a special case if his or her marks were good. “But before the board exams, the school will have to take permission from the higher secondary council.”

Sangeeta has made new friends: girls far younger than her who don’t feel she is too old to be among them.

“But we call her didi,” said her classmate Soma Saha, a Class XI arts student.