Jalandhar: Mother and daughter graduated together

Punjab: To bring light into the life of her 25-year-old visually challenged daughter, Manpreet Kaur not only took it upon herself to learn Braille but also prepared audio books for her. Manpreet was married at the age of 18, so she could not pursue further studies. However, when her daughter Gurleen Kaur enrolled in the humanities stream at Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women, Manpreet felt it was the right time to fulfil her wish of completing her graduation. It was a big achievement for both mother and daughter as they both received their degrees on Saturday. “Both of us chose two similar subjects – history and political science. While I chose English as the third subject optional, my mother was more comfortable in Punjabi,” said Gurleen, who aspires to join the civil services. “Though some NGOs had audio books for all subjects, I was never comfortable with them. I always asked my mother to record the chapters in her voice,” she added. Manpreet said, “Recording audio books was easy. I didn’t know that learning and taking exams at this level could be so difficult. If Gurleen and her father had not encouraged me, I would have quit studying after the first year itself.” “It was the opposite here. I had to make my mother sit with me and motivate her to prepare for the exams,” Gurleen said. Sukhwinder Arora, Gurleen’s father, said, “It was great to see both my wife and daughter receiving degrees together. Both were given a standing ovation at the convocation.” While Gurleen is taking online coaching for civil services, Manpreet’s duty of providing audio notes is not over yet.