“I love dropping my grandchildren to school every day

An ex-devadasi woman, Shailaja greets me with a warm smile and a vessel filled with cold water (I was gratified). As we started talking, Shailaja told me that both her sons run the family. With the loan, she repaired the cruiser of one of the rickshaws and also purchased a cycle for her eldest grandson, who now uses it to commute to school daily. She tells me that both are sons received education, but ride rickshaw due to a dearth of jobs in the village. However, Shailaja is content with the fact that her sons earn enough to run the families. Both her sons are married and are blessed with three children each, which makes Shailaja the grandmother of six kids. About them, she says, “Padhaaynge, likhaaynge aur accha shaadi banaaynge (We will educate them and also get them married nicely)”, “Whatever happened to us was our fate, we will never let them suffer anything of this sort”. As she said this, she got a bit emotional and started telling me something more. She said, “I was too young to comprehend anything when they tied the beaded necklace around my neck and dedicated me to Goddess Yellamma.” Tears rolled down her eyes. I didn’t know what to say. We then got talking about her daily routine and what she enjoys the most. Shailaja merrily described her healthy daily routine laying emphasis on her grandchildren by saying, “I love dropping my grandchildren to school every day". Those wonderful words made me smile wide and wider..