Umasree Raghunath: 07/01/2018

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

My journey of becoming a Lawyer :-)

This is the story of a man who had great dreams for his daughters. A ordinary middle class state government employee had great aspirations, a wonderful heart, a lovely smile on his face always and happiness was his only goal in life. He was simple man with high thinking. He raised his daughters equal to sons in the gender discriminate society. And one of his dreams was to make one of his daughters a lawyer. He injected the seed of service and aspiration to pursue law in her when she was young. This seed grew into a passion and became the girl's most favorite dream. However, destiny had its own say and took him away before even his girls could reach the college. Life turned overnight

A man who dreamt big for his daughters and mother who did the best she could

There was no room for dreams, passions or aspirations. It was only a struggle to survive. A mother with 3 minor girls was left alone to raise them. The woman could not give space for dreams for the need of the hour was more important, to feed them, to give them the lifestyle they had when the father was alive, to give the best of education, to ensure they are married off and settled as soon as life gave a chance. To her, the only goal was to see them married off.   This young girl could not pursue her dream of law when she was out of the school and was entering college. She had to go by what her mother could afford, could provide and finally ended up with a different education and career followed by a marriage that even needed more attention and adjustments.

Despite all the changes in life, the struggles and successes that embraced her in different spheres of life, the young girl, now a middle aged woman, still held her dream tight in her head.   It was in 2015,at the age of 39, a year before her own daughter was entering college, she took that one daring step to pursue her dream....get back to college of law, to fulfill her passion and do her best.   There were no plans to leave the career she built over two decades, however, the pursuit of happiness lies in making her dream come true.

With a full time job, a family that is dependent on her, her commitment to the social work, and then this one step to study further.   It was not easy, but not impossible. It took 3 full years to focus on the course. Several weekend trips to Bangalore to the college, lot of early morning and late night hours studying and continuous encouragement from her friends, full support from family, sharing books and study material and tips to crack the exams from her closest batch mates, those early morning dormitory revisions, long weekend stays in hotels to have uninterrupted study hours, working after exams, and then taking those many train journeys gave so much of learning and experiences of lifetime.

Finally on July 28th, 2018 after 3 years of chasing this dream, the much awaited results of the final semester came in.   The one three letter word 'LLB' became her own.   She dedicated this graduation degree to her father who injected the dream in her.

Yes, officially Umasree Sampath Kumar LLB is now a reality.

Many of my friends asked me if I am quitting IT and pursuing Law as a career full time. It is a decision that time alone will decide. For now, I am just happy being a Lawyer and helping the NGO's I am associated with on the legal advice and rehabilitation of abused girl children, cage girls, HIV affected and transgenders. This will not have conflict of interest with my work that I still love doing. Project management to me is way of life.

Those weekend Practicals! Rajiv Gandhi College of Law, KSLU

I am grateful to my husband and daughter, my loving sisters, my beloved nephews and few closest friends, my colleagues who were strength to me in chasing this dream. Today, I am happy soul. Feeling contented and fulfilling. To many it may just be a degree. but for me it is a dream that came true...