India, Sept. 5 -- Sachin Tendulkar wants to gift her a pair of running shoes, the district collector of Beed has given her a cheque of Rs.50,000 and strangers from across the country have been sending their contribution--big and small-- to her bank account. If there's one motto that a 47-year-old widow from Ambejogai has learnt this week, it's this: Run, Ramabai, run!

On August 29, the mother of two girls participated in a run organised by Bharatiya Shikshan Prasarak Sanstha's Kholeshwar Educational Complex in Ambejogai, Beed. She had been told that the winner would get prize money of Rs.3000, and so Ramabai, barefoot and saree-clad, who needed that amount to pay for her daughters' education supplies, ran her heart out and won.

The vide...