KOCHI: Never had 22-year-old Dharaksha Parveen, a migrant woman from Bihar’s Darbhanga district, dreamt that one day a brief memoir she wrote would be made into a lesson and that too in Kerala General Education Department’s Class VI Malayalam textbook. But that has happened! In the 2025-26 academic year, Class VI students throughout the state will study her life’s journey from Bihar as a 10-year-old to a Malayalam teacher in the school where she mastered the language.
Speaking to TNIE, Dharaksha, who arrived in Kerala 12 years ago in 2013, says, “My father came before us. For him, Kerala has been home for the past 25 years. We now live at Muppathadam Thandirikkal Colony in a rented house.”
According to her, the events that led to her writing getting selected for the Malayalam textbook happened after a small piece of news appeared in a vernacular daily in 2023.
“Narayanan Mash from Palakkad happened to come across the news. It was a story about a function held at GHS Binanipuram, where I now teach craft and also Malayalam under the Roshini project,” she says. “Narayanan Mash contacted Jayashree teacher associated with the Roshini project at my school. She sent him my location and address. He, along with his team, came to my house and held discussions with me for an entire day. It was during the discussions that he asked me to write something in Malayalam for a book,” says Dharaksha. She agreed and wrote a piece in a letter format addressed to her friend in Bihar. “In the letter, I talked about my life in Kerala, achievements, important events and the people here. I sent the write-up to Narayanan Mash. It was then edited and finally selected as a lesson in the Class VI Malayalam textbook after thorough scrutiny,” she adds.
According to her, the friend she addressed her letter to is a girl she studied with in Class VII in Darbhanga. “She is now married. That would have been my fate too if I hadn’t come to Kerala. When I arrived and joined Class V at GHS Binanipuram, it was difficult for me to study.
The medium was Malayalam. But after I began going for classes under the Roshini project, I began to grasp the language. I depended heavily on pictorial books and put in double the effort,” says Dharaksha. Now, she not only speaks Malayalam fluently but also teaches the language to other migrant children under the Roshini project.
How did that come about? Dharaksha says, “After completing Plus-II, I applied for a post with the Roshini project. I aced the qualifying test and interview to get the teaching post.” She now aims to build a house for her parents.
“I want to do that before I get married. Normally, it is considered the responsibility of the sons. But I want to change that.” As to whether she will go back to Bihar, Dharaksha says, “Never. I will settle down here. Even my parents are not interested in going back. There is no future for us in Bihar. Both my brothers also have the same plans.”