Twenty-year-old Babita Gupta, who is a class 12 student, didn’t have extraordinary dreams like other girls her age. Babita, a resident of Damu Nagar, which was burnt to ashes in the December 7 fire, runs the entire household alongside her studies with the help of her mother who works as a domestic help.

"When you asked what I want, what I lost in the fire, I only wanted to say I want to leave this place, get out of the tarpaulin tent under which we have been living since the time I remember," said Babita, who has dedicated her life to her family from a very young age. "Since I was in class nine, I have been working with my mother who works as a help. My father has TB and I work as much as I can to take the family load," said Babita, who goes to college from 8 am to 2 pm, works in a garment factory from 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm and then goes for her classes from 7 pm to 9.30 pm.

Babita not only takes care of her father's medical expenses, but also her own. What Babita suffers from is a rare disease where the blood stops circulating through the body. Oblivious to the name of the illness, Babita leads her life without any complaints. "When my father found out about my illness, he was devastated. He was already suffering from TB and my illness just added to the worries which led to his condition to worsen. He now also has a cataract in both his eyes and my brother has decided to drop out of college and do nothing."
The family is currently battling to make both ends meet as well rebuild everything that they lost.

On asking what Babita wishes to become professionally in the future, she laughed off saying, "What dreams? You can see our condition from your own eyes. We didn't have any lesser problems and the fire made it worse- the saved money for father's medical expenses, my own medicines, everything is gone. Now we have to start saving all over again," Babita said.

Bridge, a Mumbai-based not-for-profit organization and the on-ground partners for rehabilitation of the community affected by the Kandivali Fire, will take the funds raised on Milaap and utilize it for career counselling, creating livelihood opportunities and skill development for motivated youngsters like Babita.