Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Stoic courage in the face of fate


Here is a 64-year-old woman Lakshmi, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, who has been making handmade woolen clothes with intricate designs for the past 50 years and exhibiting her talent at the Urban Haat. When SOM sat down with Lakshmi for a tête-à-tête, this is what she had to say: "Though it appears that destiny plays a major role in everyone’s life, still one should not bow down to circumstances, instead, we should overcome the problems and stand up courageously."
"I was just 14-year-old and even before I understood what marriage is, I was married off. By the age of 20, I had five children. Till then everything was fine, but one day my husband left me suddenly and married some other girl. I was completely devastated and thought of killing myself along with the small children. But somehow I managed to control myself. It was the woolen weaving work which my mother taught me in my spare time that saved my life and became a life-sustaining job for me."
"In the initial days I used to sell these handmade woolen clothes in residential localities. Later on, I got good contacts and my business improved. Now, I feel happy as I have married off all my 5 children apart from educating them," says Lakshmi with a tinge of pride and accomplishment in her voice.

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