Divya was born in Devakottai, a small non-descript town in Tamilnadu in a farming community. Her father and brothers tend the farms and she is the first generation learner.
It was not designed that way and all the three children – her two brothers and she – were sent to school and Divya just happened to be the brightest. Her younger brother Selva dropped out after flunking the VII standard public exam while her elder brother did not have stomach for studies after X.
The sons soon joined the father on the farm while Divya presented an unusual predicament for the family. She was insistent on a college education and she was over 16 years of age; old enough to be married away.
The headmaster talked them out of it while counseling that they continue Divya on higher education for she had the intellectual prowess to go further. Her dogged determination saw her become the first woman in the country to get a doctorate in forestry overcoming many obstacles along the way.
The difficulties were manifold: for a young, poor girl from a rural background to study in the city on low stipends. In addition the worried parents were to be assuaged with frequent visits and phone calls. In the hostel, she just had 4 dresses and that meant that she had to wash her clothes daily so as to be in circulation at the rate of drying up and during monsoons that was almost impossible.
Today she has risen to being an Associate Professor in Department of Agro Forestry in Forest College and Research Institute of Tamilnadu Agricultural University. Definitely not bad for one who studied in a government school in her village!!!
Divya is one of the experts in her field and has pioneered suitable agro forestry models for drylands.
She says,” We have many drylands in India and after extensive survey, I have identified the combination of tree and crop that can grow simultaneously here”.
She recently won the “Tamilnadu Young Women’s Scientists Award” where-in she spoke compassionately of giving something back for the society especially opening new vistas to a girl born to a hereditary farming family.
When a media person asked her whether being a woman was a handicap, she said,” I don’t think so except that I have to work twice as harder and efficient as a male to gain acceptance”.
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