Story of Sarita Mali – Journey from an Indian slum to the United States

They always claim that time can change things for pretty much everyone, but actually, we are the ones who have to change it for ourselves. Sarita Mali is an incredible woman who has proved that situations never remain the same if you carry the determination to make a difference. Her journey from a slum in Mumbai to a university in the United States is an inspiration for all.

Sarita grew up in a slum in the suburb region in east Mumbai called Ghatkopar. She was admitted to a municipal school for education and from the very start of her middle school, she began helping her father in every way to earn a living. On the streets of Mumbai, Sarita would sell flower garlands for a living until she finished her graduation. She and her father would trade the flowers in exchange for money in the signals and the rest of the family would make garlands. Despite all the challenges she faced, either because of her color or because of her
economic status and financial suffering, she knew her worth and wanted to prove herself. In an interview, Sarita said – “I feel there are ups and downs in everyone’s life. Everyone has his/her stories and sufferings. This is decided in which society one is born and what life you get. Unfortunately or fortunately in some sense, I was born in a society where problems were the most essential part of my life.”

With her passing class X, she began finding out ways to earn more and started tutoring the kids residing in her locality. Taking her as an inspiration, her siblings too started devoting time towards academics and preparing for various competitive examinations. While she was pursuing her graduation, she concurrently prepared for her entrance exams to be conducted as eligibility criteria for admissions to Jawaharlal Nehru University. She was extremely determined to be somewhere one day and aimed at achieving it by working hard for the same. She claims that her father was the greatest motivation all throughout her journey and that nothing would ever be possible without him. Fortunately, she got admitted to JNU by getting the last OBC seat and that was when everything began to change for her.

Sarita said in an interview “Getting admitted to JNU is the turning point of my life. Had I not got admission here, I don’t know where I would’ve been. A university like JNU gives abundant hope to people coming from the society where I belong to.” She took up MA as her master’s degree from JNU.

She kept coming out of her shell day after day with her hard work and perseverance leaving behind all her struggles in life. Her fascination with climbing the academic ladder is amazing. She is passionate about gaining knowledge, especially in Hindi Literature, which made her decide to pursue Ph.D. She even chose her research area which was “Subaltern Women’s Writings During The Bhakti Period”. Later, when consulting with her friend about the same, he advised her and planted the idea of moving abroad to take up her Ph.D. Following that, she mailed to a lot of
professors associated with reputed colleges from around the world and received pretty good responses from the United States.

From assisting her father to earn around 300 rupees maximum on a good selling day to moving abroad to pursue her dream, Sarita Mali has gone a long way toward success. Poverty is a ruthless cycle and Mali has escaped it with her perseverance. Now when she sights a child doing the very same things she did once upon a time struggling with poverty, it overwhelms her and gets her thinking if they would ever be able to escape it or not. Sarita Mali is proof that time never stays the same and hard work blended with perseverance is the key to manipulating it the way we want.