A Humble beginning always leads to an intellectual zenith.

Her unrestricted persona bears deep roots in her upbringing. She was born in Mysore and brought up in a conservative milieu in Yellur, near Mandya, Karnataka.
‘Sharada’ her parents named her and she has remained true to the meaning of her name.
Her dad, was an optician by profession and a staunch follower of Gandhiji in belief. He travelled extensively on business covering the length and breadth of the India then.

Her first family consisted of her Mother who was originally from Andhra, her dad who hailed from saurashtra but left it and moved further south to make a living; a brother and a sister. As the oldest child at home, she had to step up and attend to all the business in the house. She had mails to send, registered posts to receive on her dad’s behalf, cash to send via money order and run errands for her mother. All of this needed to be accomplished on her way to school and back.

She recounts an incident when one of her classmates , tired of seeing her work so hard, wanted to show that doing that sort of work was not all that it was cracked up to be. She thought sending a money order was no big deal, walked up to the post office and nonchalantly, dropped Sharada’s cash along with the money order form into the letter box and assumed that was all! The teachers at school frowned upon that girl, while the others laughed it out.

Having been entrusted with all duties of an office boy, she knew it was no laughing matter. She was familiar with all the post office staff; after all, she paid them a visit every day. Her dad kept an eye on her through his post office friends to ensure she dint go playing around and shirking her responsibilities. Frightened and traumatized by the wrath she would have to put up with if her dad ever came to know of this, she decided she had to fix her friend’s folly. She stayed put that day until the postmaster came and she pleaded with him until he opened the box, reprimanded the little girl and returned the cash - all of ten rupees. Of course, asking that young lady to learn a little something from Sharada.