47-year-old Muslim teacher bags gold and third PG degreeLove for Hindi, led her to a gold in BA

Yasmin Desai has a very simple answer to anyone who asks her how she won a gold medal in MA (linguistics). Desai, who did her MA in economics way back in 1992 and later on went on to do an MBA from UK said this time she had more time to prepare. "Earlier, when I was studying, I also took tuition for students. I was simply too busy and would study just a fortnight before exams. This time around, I did not have to take care of my son who is in college and had enough time on hand so that is the secret to my gold medal," said Desai.

Interestingly, Desai did not tell her family about her third Masters degree. "Only my husband and my parents knews.My parents don't understand much about my education. But the rest of my family wondered why I wanted to do an additional Masters degree when I already had two," said Desai. So to avoid her extended family from discouraging her, Desai told them that she was doing a course on food and nutrition. "But now that I have got a gold medal, I will proudly tell them," said the 47-year-old who feels that there is no age bar if one needs to study. 

She admits that had it not been for the support of her husband she would not have achieved what she has. Incidentally, she is not satisfied with her achievement. She plans to do an Mphil and then a PhD later.

Desai, who at present works as a teacher and also tutors Class 12 arts students believes that her latest MA degree will be of help in her teaching too.