Jalandhar’s mum, daughter graduate together

To light up her 25-year-old visually impaired daughter’s life, Manpreet Kaur took it upon herself to not only learn the Braille language but also prepare audio books for her.

As Manpreet got married at 18, she could not pursue her higher studies. However, when her daughter Gurleen Kaur got enrolled into the humanities stream at Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women, Manpreet felt it was the right time to fulfil her desire of completing her graduation.

It was a big accomplishment for the mother and daughter as both received their degrees on Saturday.

Gurleen, who aspires to join civil services, said, “We both opted for two same subjects — history and political science. While I picked Elective English as the third subject, my mother was more comfortable with Punjabi.”

She added, “Though some NGOs had audio books for all subjects, I was never comfortable with them. I always asked my mother to record chapters in her own voice.”

Manpreet said, “It was easy to record audio books. I had no idea that learning and appearing for exams at this stage could be so difficult. Had Gurleen and her father not given me the push, I would have quit studies after the first year.” “It was the other way round at our place. I had to encourage my mother to sit with me and motivate her to prepare for exams,” said Gurleen.

Sukhwinder Arora, father of Gurleen, said, “It was great to see both my wife and daughter receive degrees together. Both got a standing ovation during convocation.” As Gurleen is taking online coaching for civil services, Manpreet’s duty to provide audio notes has not ended yet.