Neha logs in

Last week,the 18-year-old got her laptop from UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and she is already a click above the rest in her family

A pillow follows Nehas gleaming,black HP laptop wherever it goes. Dont put it on the floor, she shouts at her brother. Today,with the weather briefly turning pleasant,the laptopand the pillowget to go out of the two-storey house. A charpoy is spread out near the cattle shed for them. Im experimenting with all these buttons, Neha says. The 18-year-old is one of over 8,000 students who got free laptops from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav during a public function at Ghaziabad on June 4.

For now,at the Bhati household in Yaqoobpur village,roughly 62 km from Delhi in Ghaziabad district,the laptop is more a spectacle,less a machine. Everyone poses with it,takes pictures with it.

Neha became eligible for the laptop after she cleared her Class 12 last year. She now studies political science,sociology and Hindi at the Rajkiya Snatkottar Mahavidyalaya,a government PG college,nearby. It wasnt an easy decision. She is the first woman from her family to go to college. Last year,she even managed to persuade her family to send her sister-in-law Priya,who cleared her Class 12,to college.

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Girls in the village usually get married right after their Class 12 and then their in-laws dont want them to study further, says Nehas friend Pravika who too got an HP laptop at the function.

If Neha could convince her father Chain Pal Bhati,a small contractor in Greater Noida,about college,it was only because in 2011,three girls from their village joined Rajkiya Mahavidyalaya,becoming the first set of girls from the village to go to college.

Neha is the youngest of four siblings,the only girl in the household. The laptop has effected a power change in the family. She sits on the charpoy all day,holding the computer in her lap and looking very busy. I hope I get one too, says cousin Sujhata,a Class 12 student.

Nehas older brothers offer to help her. They seem familiar with the keyboardthey have worked on their friends computersand help Neha open games and save photographs. My brother has said we will get an Internet connection in a months time. Once I get that,I will be able to use my laptop for my studies, she says.

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Nehas mother is also fascinated by the machine. My sons play with these things but they never taught me. Perhaps my daughter will, she says.

As the laptop is switched on,a picture of a smiling Akhilesh Yadav comes up briefly. I removed all the Samajwadi Party stickers with the Chief Ministers photos on the outside. Id rather get rid of this as well, she says,laughing. After running her fingers over a few keys,Neha reverentially folds the laptop. Till she decides to take it out again,it will be safely placed in Nehas room on the first floor.