I was born in a humble family in a remote village of Andhra Pradesh. My father was a marginal farmer, and the resources were never enough. All the girls in my village studied till class 10th after which they were married off. I never wanted that life for myself.

My uncle was my support system and always pushed me to study well. So, in class 10, I worked very hard and topped in my mandal. Now, I was eligible for a free seat for engineering in a college. People never understood my stubbornness to study. I knew this was my chance at life, but nobody in the village supported girls looking beyond 10th. Somehow, my uncle convinced my father to let me continue my education.

In college, shifting from a Telugu medium to an English medium was a massive shift for me, but I persisted and kept taking one challenge after the other. I chose ECE because one of my distant cousins could go to the Netherlands because of the same course. However, I got interested to learn to code and in technology, courtesy of my roommates who had CSE. After the pandemic hit, I did not want to lose touch and took further interest in my studies.

I took up CCBP, so that I could learn techie skills in my mother tongue. Studying from home was a task in itself. I would go to the roof to receive a better signal on my old 3G phone to attend my classes. I ensured that I finish all my tasks in the afternoon because the internet becomes weak in the evenings in our village. Learning Javascript on a mobile phone was the most challenging part, but I persisted. These challenges made me love studying all the more.

For interviews, one of my cousins lent me his phone and internet pack. My mentors taught me not to be anxious because of my spoken English but to be confident in my knowledge. This helped me to secure a job. I want to get better at what I am doing now and that is my only focus. I was the first girl to land an IT job in my village. Now, nobody has anything to say about making girls studying after class 10th. I am happy that, in some way, I am pushing people to build their careers. I have never believed in luck but  I have always been hard-working. The best thing about hard work is that it favours all.

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