LUCKNOW: In power outage, Kashish Verma of Sitapur studied under mobile phone torchlight and candles when the phone battery died. The result of this dedication helped her score 97.83 % and top UP Board Class X (High School) exam, results of which were declared by the Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Board on Thursday.Anshika Verma, shared the top position with the same percentage in High School and Shikha Verma, who topped the Class 12 (Intermediate) exam with 97.60 % marks. All three girls are daughters of farmers.Student of Baburam Savitri Devi Inter College in Sitapur, Kashish, lives in Sonsa village of Sitapur district. Her brother Yash said, “There is usually no electricity during the day in our village and even at night it supply is only for a few hours. But my sister never made excuses and continued to study without a break.” He said their father, Pupan Verma, is a small farmer and till last year, they lived in a kutcha house. To support their studies, he took a loan and built two small rooms.“Don’t be afraid to struggle, work hard and remain consistent to achieve success,” said Kashish, adding that she wanted to be a teacher, a dream cherished by her father and her mother, Neelam Devi, who ensured financial challenges were never a hurdle in her education.The story of Class 12 topper Shikha Verma from the same school is no different. She lives in Bilauli village and studied with the help of solar power. She credited her school for providing free coaching classes that she could not have afforded.Shikha said, “My school runs a coaching programme called Super 30, free for students from humble background. My father, Jitendra Verma, is a farmer and we are four siblings.” She added that her father always told her to focus only on her studies and not worry about anything else. “He works hard in the fields cultivating mentha and wheat, so I worked hard in the classroom and I aspire to become a civil servant one day,” she said.UP Board Class 10 co-topper Anshika Verma from Modern Academy Inter College, Barabanki hails is also a farmer’s daughter. “I want to become an engineer so that one day I can develop technologies that make lives of farmers easier. My father, Kundal Lal Verma, and my homemaker mother, Anita, are my biggest inspiration,” she said.
