March 19, 2024

WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY

This story is inspired by real life story of a girl Prita Ahuja. Her name itself described her that means “Joyful”

Prita Ahuja is a popular name among number of social activists in Faridabad. She is a president of “Pragati India” an NGO working in the field of Women empowerment, self-defence and menstrual hygiene It’s been 5 long dedicated years till today that she has actively participated and worked for the society.

Whoever meets her get impress by her positive aura. She not only participates in social service but also participates actively in other areas like cooking competition, dance performance etc. Looking at her, no one can say that she ever had stressful past. She has worked so hard to reach here.

“Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid of standing still”

~Unknown

Her childhood

Prita was the third child among four of her parents and had 2 elder sisters and one younger brother. She was born in Cochin in 1968. She had to bear reproach since childhood due to her dark complexion. At home ambience was very disciplined as her father was a Navy officer but her mother was very polite who supported all her children equally. She was average in studies. In the year 1984, she completed her school. Due to her father’s job in navy, whole family had to move with him from one state to another. From Cochin they moved to Chennai then to Mumbai then Lonavala and then her father got transfer to Goa. Due to staying at different places, Prita meet new people, she used to learn the culture of the place where she went, she used to learn their way of living, try to know everything.

After completion of school she wanted to become teacher but her dream was crushed and forcefully got her admitted in diploma of Medical Laboratory Technician at Goa Medical College. Although she wanted to do something else but to fulfill her parents’ dream, she studied wholeheartedly and completed the diploma in the year 1987.

“Allow yourself to dream, wish and imagine the best that could happen.”

~Rohen Phoenix

Beginning of her real journey

In September 1987 while they were in Goa, she got selected for Government job in one of the government hospital in Faridabad city of Haryana. She moved to Faridabad with her elder sister. Here she kept doing her work with a lot of heart, but somewhere her desire to become a teacher still kept on knocking from inside, which she wanted to fulfil. As time passed, she drowned in her work.

One sunny Sunday in the year 1989 both sisters felt like watching some videos. Thinking the same, both of them went to the near-by video library. Prita got busy searching for videos there but a boy sitting in the library kept watching her. She did not pay any attention to it and went away with the videos she selected. After 2 days, when returning from the hospital, she went to return those video cassettes, even then she saw the same boy sitting there. She got agitated when she saw same guy at video library and she started shouting at the boy without caring about anyone. All people who were present there at video library were also watching this.

When her anger subsided, someone who came to the library there wanted to know about it and asked her “What happened?”

She replied “This boy is following me.”

Everyone started laughing, but she could not understand anything, so she hesitated and asked “why are you all laughing?” Then one of guy told her that “he is the owner of this library, and you come to his library, how he can follow you?”

She did not understand anything and quickly returned the video cassettes. But she kept thinking all night that the boy was not at fault, yet I scolded him so much and he did not say anything in front. She fell asleep while thinking about it.

The next day she thought why not apologize to that boy thinking that she came to his video library in the evening while returning from hospital. Upon arriving at the library, she apologized to him and the quarrel turned into friendship.

Prita often visited Vinod’s library and the two started spending time together. Vinod was hardware engineer by profession but due to his love for music and movies he was running this video library. Both of them did not even know when their friendship turned into love. Both of them informed to their families and they all agreed for this relationship.

In year 1991 one of the close relatives of Vinod came to her house to finalise each and every thing with her parents and date was also fixed and he gave consent for marriage. Everything was going good then suddenly a day before marriage he refused from everything. Vinod’s parents were settled abroad. His father was an auditor in Embassy of India.

His parents were very upset by this situation. Both her elder sisters were still unmarried. Seeing her love with Vinod, her parents had decided to get her married first. But all these things broke them. Thinking about the honour of her parents, she too decided to break her relationship with Vinod and started preparing to go to her home town with family.

At that time Vinod took a strong decision and decided to get married on the day the wedding was fixed. Both of them got married on a fixed date but Vinod’s parents could not attend that wedding. Due to which, even after marriage, her relationship remained cold with her in-laws. There were many hurdles in her life.

In year 1992 she blessed with baby girl. When her daughter was 21 days old, due to unavoidable circumstances and also she got transfer and due to which they had to leave their house. For this reason her husband also had to close his video library shop. They did not want to bother their parents and did not take any help from them. She was on maternity leave and Husband’s video library was closed, so meeting the day to day expenses was becoming a challenge. After a while, her husband also got a job in a company and her maternity leave was also completed, so she called her mother to look after her daughter.

“Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening it.”

~John Locke

5 years later in 1997 she blessed with baby boy which completed her family. She had to leave his son at crutch before going for her duty. His husband also thought of leaving the job to do his business. He started the business of share trading. This business is one that attracts everyone. Initially everything was fine, profits were also there but due to lack of knowledge of share market, started losing money. Over the period of 5 years, the losses increased so much that savings also started to end and they became insolvent. In this tough situation her brother and sister in law stood with her, they supported her in every way possible. Her bond with her sister in law (Bhabhi) became stronger during this crisis. She did not lose courage and always stood in support of her husband.

The loans had increased so much that it was difficult to take them off. She was taking care of household expenses, children’s education and loan instalment all alone. But she never gave up even in this situation, she stood firm.

After some time, her husband got a job in Solan near Shimla. He was doing the job that after about 1 year some of his friends told him that a hardware professional is required in a renowned hospital in Faridabad. He interviewed for that job and got selected. This job came as a boon in their life. This job gave them financial stability and helped them in taking off their loans.

“Bad times don’t last. Your happiness is always going to come back.”

~Unknown

Now she was completed in every way, just her dream of becoming a teacher was incomplete. God had thought for her to complete it even sooner. In May 2014, a defence camp for girls was organized by Rosy Pandit, a renowned social worker in Faridabad. There she met her and was impressed by her thinking and approach towards work. Prita decided to join hands with Rosy Pandit to work for society primarily in the field of women empowerment and child education. Here she completed her dream of becoming a teacher. All was going well till 2016. She had good job, loving husband and super kids.

Worst chapter of her journey

Suddenly one awful night on 4th July 2016 her husband Vinod had severe Brain Hemorrhage and was hospitalized to one of the Multi-specialty hospitals of Faridabad. He had undergone three brain surgeries one after another within 15 days with no improvement. The doctors were planning for fourth surgery on the next morning but family was scared for any mishappening. But she stood strong in these situations also and be like pillar for her family. She took a strong decision and same night shifted her husband to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi. There he started recover without any further surgery and within 15 days he got discharged. This incident strengthened her relationship with her family and everyone stood up with her strongly.

She took 3 months leave from her job to look after her husband. In these days she realized life is not all about competition but it’s about oneness, togetherness and selflessness. But after this incident his husband was not able to return to job.

“She was not fragile like FLOWER; she was fragile like BOMB.”

~unknown

She again stood up and started her social work and appointed as “President of Pragiti India Trust” in year 2017. She has done a remarkable job in the field of Women empowerment, self-defence and menstrual hygiene and still doing. For her selflessness service to society she awarded by “Rani Laxmi Bai Award by PRSS in year 2017”, “National Women Icon” by Nari Shakti foundation in year 2017, “Skill Life Development Camp Award” by Government Middle School Ballabgarh (2017), “Award of Honour” by Sanskriti Sangam in year 2017 and 2018, “Bhartiya Tiranga Gaurav Award” by Page 3 Media Partner in year 2019, “Award for organising Blood Donation Camp” by Indian Red Cross Society Faridabad (2016), “Global Fame of Arts Award” by Sharad foundation (2018)

prita_the_Warrior

She also invited as chief guest and special honourable guest by various institutions. Prita is a warrior in real sense. During this period of pandemic also she is fulfilling her job by serving society through medical service and social service. In the last few days, a test of one of her colleague turned out to be Corona positive but she remained on her duty.

Her daughter got married in year 2018 and recently blessed with Baby boy, son is working as a financial analyst in one of the MNC and husband join hand with her in social work. She achieve what she wanted.

21 thoughts on “WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY

  1. Amazing blog I know Pritaji for about a year but came to know so many aspects of her life through this blog. Truly an inspiring story.
    Kudos to u mind for making it so beautiful and readable not at a single point I felt detached or bored. Very nice use of quotes. ❤❤

  2. Vry inspiring true story.
    Myself too believe in “Where there is a will,there is a way.”
    We should not loose our hopes at all.
    Mini,u r amazing.
    God bless u,always,beta.

  3. Dreams are just dreams until you put your effort to convert into reality…very motivational story

  4. Very inspiring story. Hats off to Prita . Altruism at its best. Strong woman.
    Nicely pened down by Mini.
    Commendable.

  5. Prita ji is a true inspiration for all of us. She has a powerhouse inside her. A beautiful and cheerful soul. Mini you are doing grt job. Keep growing.

  6. MINI u have done a fantastic pc of art in writing today must say every word has so much depth about pritaji knowing her personally n sharing beautiful moments with her she is surely one remarkable lady n pillar of strength kudos To her powerful journey
    N surely may u be blessed wid more digital ink in ur pen to write 😜😜 forever
    Stay blessed 😇😇😇

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