Class topper on footpath: Meet Dadar market’s brightest flower

MUMBAI: Amid the bustle of the Dadar flower market, eight-year-old Thanushka Thatte sits outside her makeshift shelter made of plastic sheets, diligently studying from her schoolbooks. A student of class 3 at Sharadashram Vidya Mandir in Dadar (West), she proudly says she ranks first in her class.Her parents, both flower vendors at the market, work long hours to keep her dreams alive. Her mother also works as a part-time cleaner at a local clinic to pay for special tuitions so that Thanushka can keep excelling.Her home, barely shielded from sun and rain, stands on the footpath, a temporary refuge in the shadow of the city’s chaos.In the heart of hardship, her ambition glows bright a child’s quiet determination to rise beyond her circumstances, one page at a time.