What is your name? What is your age? What is your village?
Uma Rathore, 14 years old. From Golia.
When did you come to the hostel?
I came 7 months ago.
Describe your family. Describe the family members, who they are, their ages, etc. Tell how it is to live with your family. What were the hardships and challenges that you faced, living at home?
I have one sister, 10, a brother 7. My mother is a housewife. My father drives. He owns a car, a Maruti, older model. He drives for people, but does not work at a company. Sometimes he teaches people to drive, for pay. He has a college education, graduated college with liberal arts degree.
What did you do before you came to the hostel? Work? Study?
Study only.
Do you like the hostel, the school? In what ways do you like or dislike them?
I like the hostel very much. We have fun. I like to play handball. I like living in a group. My mother wanted me to come to the hostel, to study.
What makes you happy?
I love to play sports and to study science.
If you had three wishes, what would you wish for?
First, and most important, to have a good job. Then, a nice home, two children.
What would you like to do in the future?
I want to get an MBS degree.
Tell me about your mother.
She is kind, smart and hardworking. I say she is smart because she talks softly with me. She has passed the 10th class. She’s also beautiful.
What makes you cry?
I cry when I argue with other girls. I cry when I’m homesick. ( All of the girls say the same thing about crying. They seem to love to argue and squabble but it makes them feel bad. They all admit to feeling homesick for the first six or seven months, but afterwards, not at all.)