UK scholarship for maid’s daughter
Kiran Wadhwa, Hindustan Times Mumbai, January 08, 2009
Varalaxmi Pillai can probably be the best brand ambassador for Mumbai as the city of dreams. This 21-year-old’s luggage occupies quite a bit of her tiny Kanjurmarg house.
She is preparing for her first trip abroad. She will be flying to London to start her one-year masters programme in international management, something that no one in her family had ever dreamed of. Her father, a factory worker, passed
away when she was five and her mother worked as a domestic help.
Two months ago she filled out an application for the University of Westminster with her qualifications and wrote out an essay with her goals. “All through my study years I had to depend on others for my textbooks and occasionally even clothes but now I my dreams have been realised,” she said.
After her father’s death, Meher Moos, India’s intrepid traveller now a consultant with Thomas Cook, became her guardian and helped get her funds for her education. They were borne largely by the Thodumal Shahani Trust and other beneficiaries.
She is also one of the first to receive the Sheriff’s Scholarship, which was instituted by Sheriff Indu Shahani in collaboration with universities in the UK and US.
I believe that all great achievements and success in life, and all changes for the better, have one powerful characteristic in common: The First Step. Take the first step, and the journey has a way of taking care of itself.”
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