Shilpa couldn't conceal her excitement when she was offered admission to the BSc Computer Science Honors program at Delhi University. It was her dream to become a software programmer with specialisation in animation. After all, it was only a year back when she often wondered if her dream was ever going to be realised.
Shilpa hailed from a typical middle class family in Delhi. Her father was a businessman who had dabbled in several different small businesses. When he decided to become a travel agent a few years ago, Shilpa didn't realize it was a decision which was going to alter her life fundamentally.
The first thing her father did on becoming a travel agent was to buy a computer. He operated his business out of his own home and consequently Shilpa and her elder sister started experimenting with the newly acquired toy, much to the annoyance of their mother. The mother would often complain to her husband about the valuable time being wasted away on the computer. But that didn't deter Shilpa. She was amazed by the vast amount of knowledge available on the web. Most importantly, she felt she knew what she wanted to do with her career.
Developing a career in computers was not going to be easy. Shilpa realised she had to get admitted to a good computer program in college and for that, she needed to excel in her Class 12th Boards.
Shilpa had been a good student all her life. But it was painting, drama, declamation, singing and anchoring which interested her even more. Like all the other students in her class, she often complained about the lack of time to do everything. But, unlike all the other students in her class, she wanted to remain an all-rounder.
When her father moved her to a new school for the completion of Class XIth, Shilpa realized that all the students around her were taking tuition classes to get that extra edge for the examinations. Her mother insisted that she attend classes at the local tutor's. Shilpa was not keen at all. She had asked a few friends about the tuition classes and while she saw some benefit in them, she realized she would be wasting more time and money than she would want to. She understood her parent's financial conditions and didn't want to burden them with yet another educational cost.
The situation was not ideal for her. She understood the importance of getting the extra marks in her board exams to get the college and subject of her choice and yet she was not getting the appropriate
academic guidance in school or anywhere else. Shilpa's parents were worried as well. They wanted Shilpa to get the additional help which they knew all the other kids were getting. But they always knew that they had a stubborn daughter who would do things her way.
One day Shilpa's father got an SMS from an unknown number: 'Visit TopChalks.com and study Maths for as little as Rs 99 per month' He didn't know what that really meant and forwarded the message to his daughter.
Shilpa, always interested about the new things that the Internet had to offer, checked out TopChalks.com. She was pleasantly surprised to see comprehensive audio-video lectures on her entire Class X11th syllabus for all her subjects. There were quite a few companies offering tests and some concepts but no one was covering the entire subject matter in such a unique and complete way as TopChalks.
The site, not only, had employed some of the best teachers from various schools to deliver the lectures but had also presented the lectures in a very unique audio-visual format. The lectures were led by the instructors, were full of graphics and animations to explain the concepts and yet to Shilpa's delight the lectures didn't take forever to download on her average-low-speed Internet connection.
Shilpa asked her father to enroll her in the Maths and Physics package being offered by TopChalks.com. Her father didn't hesitate for a moment and Shilpa spent the next several months being coached by the “virtual” instructors at TopChalks.com. Her favourite part was that she could study the material at her own pace, anytime during the day and keep repeating the material that she couldn't understand completely. Every once in a while when she had doubts, she would post them on the forums maintained by TopChalks and got her questions promptly answered by the faculty as well as other supportive students.
With such a comprehensive preparation, Shilpa wasn't nervous at all on the day of the exams. When the results came out, she had done wonderfully in all her exams and had secured grades far beyond her parent's expectations.
Now Shilpa has started studying Computer Science in Delhi University. She often tells the TopChalks folks to prepare similar content for her college level classes too!
