BHOPAL: They are not glittering stars of the silver screen; they have no achievements to boast of in the arena of sports; they are not top-notch corporate honchos; they are not bureaucrats; nor are they ministers or ambassadors.
But that does make the achievements of these next-door-neighbour women even a bit less worthy of enumeration than those who have made it to the top. And their struggle was as grim and as hard as that of women whom we adore for their success.
This Women’s Day, meet a clutch of doughty women who struggled to piece their life together after tragedy struck. Even as they were looking forward to a happy and contended family life, they lost their husbands – the sole bread-winners of the family. But they did not give in or give up. Undaunted, they fought on. And success came their way. Excerpts:
Indira Jaiswani,
65, lost her husband to kidney failure when she was very young. The paan shop which her husband ran had to be shut down and Indira was burdened with the responsibility of bringing up her five daughters and a son. She started working in a Gurudwara, serving the visitors. Her son took up cleaning job at a shop when he was just 8 and today he is the manager of the same shop. Four of her daughters and her son are happily married. And Indira, though tired, is contended.
Suman Kushwaha’s truck driver husband succumbed to a liver disease. A matriculate, Suman had hardly seen the outside of her home till then. Moreover, she had no one to fall back on in her parental home or among her in-laws either. She began by working as a cook in homes to feed and educate her three children. She also worked as peon in a school. For the last 10 years, she is working as an ayah in a hospital. Having lived in a rented accommodation for almost 30 years, her only dream is to have a house which she can call her own.
Looking back at her life, Aashima Gupta, who works in St Paul’s School, wonders how happy times pass in a jiffy while even a day of pain and misery, feels like a year. Four months into her marriage, her husband was returning to Bhopal from Indore after receiving the good news that their baby was on the way. But fate intervened and he was killed in a road accident on the way. “Problems were there but what I could not tolerate was the pity people showed towards me,” she says. In due course, her son was born. Her father-in-law passed away soon thereafter. But she, along with mother-in-law, ploughed on. She worked from morn till night and ensured that her son received good education. He is now a student at IIT, Madras. “Today, people do not pity me. They respect me,” she says, with obvious pride.
After Seema Bharthare’s husband died in a road accident, she was faced with the impossible task of bringing up her five daughters. She opened a kirana shop to earn a living. She worked her fingers to the bones, toiling for up to 20 hours a day. Now, one of her daughters in an airhostess, another an engineer and yet another is a doctor. The remaining two are happily married.
Vibha Sharma lost her husband soon after their marriage. She educated herself and also her son. Now, her son is an engineer with Hitachi company and she is a PRO with the Bhopal Development Authority. “My family was the greatest source of inspiration and support for me. My parents, siblings and in-laws – I am deeply indebted to all of them. They gave me courage and they boosted my morale,” she says.
Usha Johri, now 78, got married when she was just 19. Her husband – an overseer with PWD – died when her four children – three sons and a daughter – were in their teens. Johri decided to solely focus on nurturing her children and providing them good education. She rented the major portion of her house and knitted sweaters to make the ends meet. Using her late husband’s PF and gratuity amount, she married off her daughter. “His death had left me emotionally shattered and financially broke. But my children helped me come out of the shock. They never demanded anything and studied hard,” Johri said. Now, her eldest son is a chartered accountant and the younger two are engineer and doctor respectively. And all her daughters-in-law are doctors. “Now I feel as him I am in heaven,” she said, as tears rolled down her cheeks.
