A 16-year-old, Vanisha Pathak fought COVID-19 and has lost both her parents to the fatal virus. The teenager has still not lost hope in life. Vanisha has scored 99.8% marks in the CBSE class 10 results announced on Tuesday. She has topped the exam in Bhopal along with two other students.

Her tenacity and spirit of life have flown through her pen into a heartfelt poetic note “I’ll be a strong girl daddy without you” which she has dedicated to her late parents after their departure.

“I’ll stand tall”, writes the girl in the poem. She claims that both her parents were interested in poetry so the writing came naturally to her. She is now taking care of her younger brother who is studying in class 5.

In less than a fortnight, the siblings lost both their parents.  Their mother passed away on May 4 and father on May 15. Both of them also had tested positive for the coronavirus and were kept in home isolation when their aunt who lives next door, took care of them.

Her father Jeetendra Pathak was an insurance agent while her mother Dr Seema Pathak was a government school teacher posted at Bagrasiya in Bhopal.

“I took a while to come to terms with the shock but once I looked at my younger brother, I felt a sense of responsibility which gave me the required strength to come through over this personal disaster,” said Vanisha. She has now shifted with her maternal uncle and aunt.

Her father wanted her to pursue IIT or civil services to serve the nation and the gritty girl is now busy preparing for the engineering entrance – JEE. She will appear for the exam in 2023. “I will give a shot to civil services after graduation”, she said adding that fulfilling her father’s dream now was her passion.

Strength and resilience seem deeply ingrained in her family as the teenage girl told that her younger brother too did not let grief overtake him. “He never cried in front of me, perhaps thinking it will make me weak.”

Her younger brother Vivan is passionate about cricket and his elder sister is planning to enrol him into a cricket academy once the covid-19 is over.

Vanisha’s principal Sister Pavithra who met the gritty girl on Wednesday told News18 that she always had been good at studies and also an active participant in co-curricular activities. “Despite losing her parents she did not lose heart and has moved on in life with all the courage and will which is an inspiration”, said the Carmel Convent principal.

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