Always a breaker of chains, 96-year-old Karthiyani Amma has managed to make history again by scoring 98 per cent in the Aksharalaksham literacy examination. Having been the oldest student to attend the exams conducted by the Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority, Amma's voice bursts with joy when we catch up with her. She had just received her certificate from Pinarayi Vijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala. Tired from the swarm of media persons and curious onlookers, all she truly cared about was getting her trophy home.
"I was actually aiming for a 100," she says with a small toothless chuckle. She adds, "I was so happy today, I was able to receive the certificate from the Chief Minister himself. I will not stop with this, my aim is to pass 10th standard as soon as I can begin studying again." We had first met Amma during the run-up of to her first exam which was written along with a number of other students who will be officially pronounced as literate with these results. The certificate distribution ceremony was conducted at the Secretariat in Trivandrum.
On my first visit with Amma, it was Sathi K, the literacy mission's prerak who looks over the whole process in addition to distributing resources who had predicted Amma's incomparable victory. She says, "We are overjoyed with how things have turned out. The event was a culmination of all the progress that Amma's journey has made simply through her ability to see past age or any old ideas people associate with it." Sathi reassures me that Amma's journey has just begun and that she will continue to break barriers every step of the way.
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