“I was born deaf and dumb to poor parents who weren’t able to afford me any kind of treatment so from a really young age, I learnt to live with my illness. Life did feel really unfair to me but the real breakdown happened, when my parents gave me away to an orphanage as they could no longer afford to raise. Now that was a different kind of ordeal. At a tender age when I didn’t know what was happening around me, I learnt to get through life in a shadow lie state, doing as I was told. There were a couple of courses we were taught like the sign language and slowly and steadily, I started paying keen attention to them and started to ace the levels of education. Shortly after my high school years, I was hired by a typewriting institute to act as a stenographer for a lawyer. And that is where I met HIM! He was a sweeper boy in the lawyer’s office and we struck an immediate cord which has been unbreakable through all these years. As a deaf and mute person himself, he didn’t understand sign language but he sealed the deal with a unique gift – a pair of golden bangles that were given to him from his mother before she passed away. And there has been no looking back from that! I married him and we started our life on a rough note – coming from economically poor backgrounds, we got through life through the barest minimum but life as they say, rewards persistence. We grew steadily and eventually bought our own house. Kids came into existence and we spent the best of our years raising them and watching them lead the lives we never got for ourselves. As old age grew near, we sold the house to sponsor our kid’s education and bodily illnesses caught up to us fast. We now sell vegetables at street corners and get through with whatever little we get from a day. On a rainy day, some kind soul comes over to drop food for us. Life hasn’t always been fair but with the right kind of people to share it with, you can make the most of what is given and still lead a good life.”