80 years ago, she got girls to school

Vijaysinh Parmar/TNN/Ahmedabad: She played badminton and was a champion swimmer. What’s new? She did this 80 years ago, in pre-Independence India. But, that’s not just what we remember Sarla Joshi for today. In Junagadh, she single-handedly got girls enrolled in schools. And soon, there were so many girls that Ladlibibi Kanyashala fell short of classrooms. Sarla Tai, as she was fondly called, re-interpreted the story of Dronacharya and Eklavya in her own way and said the great guru should not have asked for the thumb of his shisya Eklavya, as a teacher’s duty is to give and not ask. The twist moved his grandson Abhijat Joshi to write his film ‘Eklavya: The Royal Guard’ in 2007. Joshi also wrote the script for ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’. “She used to say a teacher should see that more Eklavyas are born. She was a true teacher,” said Joshi. Way back in 1939, Sarla Tai, one of the first few women post-graduates in the country, went from house to house, asking parents to send their daughters to school. “Your efforts in girls’ education created a revolution,” said a memento Ladlibibi Kanyashala, where she taught, gave her. Sarla Tai, who died at 93 in 2002, graduated in 1933 from Nagpur University in Marathi and Sanskrit and did her post-graduation in 1935. She joined Ladlibibi Kanyashala in Junagadh in 1936 and taught until her death. Her husband Raghunath Joshi was a professor in Bahauddin College in Junagadh. “Sarla Tai wrote a drama on the theme that girls want to learn and we should provide them the opportunity. She invited prominent people of Junagadh, including the nawab’s wife, to come and watch. The result — donations poured in instantly and a new building came up,” says Sarla Tai’s son Jayant Joshi.