"I
don’t know where to begin... they were terrible times. My husband was
well-placed, but the marriage had begun to sink almost as soon as it
began. Like most women do, I tried to work against all the odds .
My
in-laws insisted everything would be alright if I had a son. My first
child was a daughter, and that didn’t do me any good... but I couldn’t
walk out. I had lost my father, my brother was in a not-so-senior
position in Bata. I didn’t want to be a burden on my family and
continued to live in my marital home in Kolkata.
I looked after
my mother-inlaw, who was suffering from cancer, and while bathing her, I
would tell myself she would bless me and put things right.
I
don’t know how I tolerated it all. The least a man can do, if he must
philander, is to not flaunt his women in his wife’s face. Then
began the manhandling. I still wanted my marriage to survive. I was a
pure vegetarian and learnt to cook non-vegetarian delicacies thinking it
would please him.
Then, I was pregnant again. When Pooja was
eight months in my womb, my husband brought a girl to the house and
announced he would marry her. I thought of killing myself. I hung on the
slight hope that if the baby was a boy, my marriage could be saved.
When
Pooja was born a girl, for three days, nobody came to the hospital.
There was a squadron leader’s wife on the opposite bed, who was kind
enough to give me baby clothes for Pooja to wear. When she was 20 days
old, I had to make a choice. I left the house with my girls ‘ Pooja and
Shubra, who was seven then. I haven’t seen my husband since. I promised
myself, even if we had just one roti, we would share it, but together.
I
began life in Mumbai with the support of my mother, brother, who was by
then married. It
wasn’t the ideal situation, especially when he had children - space,
money, everything was short. I began work at the Taj Colaba and got my
own place. How did I manage? Truth be told, I would put a chatai on the
floor, leave two glasses of milk and some food, and bolt the door from
outside before going to work. I would leave the key with the neighbours
and tell the kids to shout out to them when it was time to leave for
school.
Their tiny hands would do homework on their own, feed
themselves on days that I worked late. My elder daughter Shubhra would
make Pooja do her corrections... This is how they grew up. At a birthday
party, Pooja would not eat her piece of cake, but pack it and bring it
home to share with her sister. When Shubhra started working, she would
skip lunch and pack a chicken sandwich that she would slip in her
sister’s lunchbox the next day.
I used to pray, ‘God, punish me
for my karma, but not my innocent little
kids. Please let me provide them the basics.’ I used to struggle for
shoes, socks, uniforms. I was living in Bangur Nagar, Goregaon. Pooja
would walk four bus stops down to the St Thomas
Academy.
Then, too little to cross the road, she would ask a passerby to help
her. I had to save the bus money to be able to put some milk in their
bodies.
Life began to change when I got a job for Rs 6,000 at the then Goa
Penta. Mr Chhabra, the owner, and his wife, were kind enough to provide
a loan for me. I sent my daughters to my sister’s house in Pune, with
my mother as support. I spent four years working in Goa
while I saved to buy a small one-bedroom house in Pune (where the family
still lives). I would work 16-18 hours a day, not even taking weekly
offs to accumulate leave and visit my daughters three or four times a
year.
Once I bought my house and found a job in Pune,
life began to settle. I worked in Hotel Blue Diamond for a year and then finally joined Mainland China
‘ which changed my life. The consideration of the team and management
brought me the stability to bring them up, despite late hours and the
travelling a hotelier must do.
Shubhra got a job in Hotel Blue
Diamond, being the youngest employee there while still in college, and
managed to finish her Masters in commerce and her BBM. Today, she is
married to a sweet Catholic boy who is in the Merchant Navy and has a
sweet daughter.
I continue to finish my day job and come home
and take tuitions, as I have done for all these years. I also do all my
household chores myself.
Through the years, Shubhra has been my
anchor and Pooja, the rock. Pooja’s tiny hands have wiped away my tears
when I broke down. She has stood up for me, when I couldn’t speak for
myself. Academically brilliant, she participated in
all extra-curricular activities. When she needed high heels to model
in, she did odd shows and bought them for herself.
When I saw
Pooja give her speech on TV, I knew it came from her heart. I could see
the twinkle in her eye. And I thought to myself as she won ‘My God, this
is my little girl.’ God was trying to tell me something.
Today, I’ve no regrets. I believe every cloud has a silver lining. As a mother, I’ve done nothing great."
Pantaloons Femina Miss India Pooja Chopra’s mother promised, ‘One day, this girl will make me proud’.
Lumberjacks working among the redwoods in California
The photos from northwest California were taken by Swedish photographer A.W. Ericson
Humboldt County has nearly 1,500,000 acres in public and private forests, including the Redwood National and State Parks
Pictures from the 1915-era display the work of loggers in the densely forested northern California area
Dramatic photos show the measure of a man in contrast to the enormity of nature
The densely forested northern California area accounts for twenty per cent of the state's total forest production
