Nirmala

Nirmala, 52, has been selling vegetables for 28 years now. She was married to her husband when she was 18. 'Only the women earn in our house' she muses. She brought up her daughter to be a nurse, who works at the General Hospital now, while her son remains unemployed. 'When women are given the opportunity, they surprise you in so many ways. Once she was given the opportunity, my daughter blossomed'. Nirmala is now on a mission to make money to educate her grand daughter who's now 15 years old. Every morning after work, she goes to the government office where she tries to collect the money that the government has set aside for the marriage of young girls. 'I'm going to take that money and make her a doctor' she sniggers. 'She loves the hospital, maybe she got it from her mother'. 

Laxmi

Laxmi, was the first female employee of RBI in India.She was employed as a sweeper in the Chennai office and still continues to be so. Single mother Laxmi educated her daughter to be an employee in RBI as well. Just that, her daughter is now a  financial analyst. 

Lakshmi

Lakshmi, 51, came into a large joint family, brought from a small town to the big city. All the promises that her in laws made to her parents were never fulfilled. They told her that they would treat her like a daughter and made sure she studied further. But instead, she was treated like one of the house helps, with no respect and ill treated to such an extent that she wasn't allowed to sleep on the same bed as her husband. Education, she says, was out of the question. They took away all the money and resources that her parents had given her and she couldn't go back to her parents due to the shame she thought it would bring them. 3 years later, her baby daughter was her only respite. But this time she made up her mind that she would not leave her daughter to the same fate. At 25, she left her in laws and her husband and took up a low level job at a bank. 26 years later, she can't believe she had the courage to do so. Today her daughter is a practicing CA in the United States and her mother Lakshmi is a strong, independent woman. 

Sukanya

'We weren't allowed to listen to the radio at home' she said. 'My grandmother was extremely strict and my father was completely in her control. It was a sad state because my mother was a singer. Before she got married, she used to play the violin and sing beautifully. But once she moved to this house, she wasn't allowed to touch her violin, neither was she allowed to open her mouth till she was spoken to.. Though I do have vague memories  of me and my sisters staying up late at night, not falling asleep, just so that she would not stop singing us to sleep. It was beautiful. You'll also sing one day Kanna, she used to tell us.' She has a faraway look in her eyes, deep in memory and the period more than 50 years back.
'My father and my mother never had a loving relationship, because of my father's mother. She controlled the house. Years after, even though she had passed away, my father and mother still remained distant from each other, till one day my father brought a radio set home. Now all grown up, my sisters and I stared in complete wonder as they started singing together. We started singing along with them and that was the only training we ever got. Today, all 3 of us are singers. Somewhere, our mother made sure she kept her deal of making us sing. 

Neela

Nithya, daughter of Neela, at 24, knows that she isn't meant for marriage. She wants to travel the world, teach little children and preferably not have any of her own. Her mother Neela,62, is all for this idea.
What made you think like that?
I was from a conservative family from Thanjavur that believed in early marriage for girls and a lot patriarchy. Though I was the second daughter, at many points, I was the only bread winner for the family. I remained unmarried till I was 28, a big deal for girls at that time. My parents were spoken about in many ill ways just because I was unmarried. But I moved to Chennai and tasted what freedom really felt like. Though my parents didn't realize it, but they had given me wings, so when I got married, I was a complete person. Generally women tend to think that they are completed by the men in their lives, but that's not true. Especially in today's day and age. It is the union of two complete human beings. And if my daughter doesn't need that companionship, I don't see why I should force her into it, if anything I want to give her those wings that my parents unknowingly gave me. My husband passed away many years ago, and I have lived so far, without companionship.  It isn't impossible. If anything, it's empowering. 

Neetu

Neetu, 22 is a maid in a Chennai. Hailing from a small village in Tamil Nadu, Neetu has never seen her parents. She has always lived under the care and protection of some aunt or uncle. Her aunt, she says was a maid in Tamil Nadu when she made the decision to take away Neetu from her village. 'She thought I deserved a better life than she did. She didn't want me married by 18 and uneducated with two children' Neetu said. Her aunt, fought with the locals of the village and took Neetu away to give her a city education and exposure. Neetu passed her 12th standard exams and took up a job unable to put more pressure on her aunt and uncle who were bringing up their own two children. She worked at Lilliput and picked up English by going to the mall and typewriting classes. She now works in a household of influential people who care for her every need and are also educating her a little everyday about the world beyond. 'I haven't felt the need for blood parents, because I've been surrounded by kind souls who give me all the love and support that parents would give their children' She now is an earning member of that family that took her away many years ago. 

Anu

Anu, 33, is a social science teacher at a middle school and the mother of an 8 year old girl. Her mother, she tells me was a teacher as well, of Science.
'She wanted me to do IAS, I think..' she said. 'But you took her path?' I asked. 'Maybe it stuck with me somewhere, I saw the life she gave me, I wanted the same for my child' she said.
What does your daughter want to do?
'Well, I'd really like it if was to become a doctor.'
And what does she want to do?
'She loves dressing up and looking pretty, she's also really independent.. looks like she might go into the fashion industry. Modelling or Designing'
Were you ever interested in these things?
'I don't think I really had the choice because though my mother was liberal, she did all my shopping, told me what to wear, who to get married to and all of that. I think my daughter is more independent and more of an individual than I ever was.. or even am'
Can I take a photo of you for my reference?
'Oh Please No! I look terrible right now..
(at an after thought)
Looks like my daughter is rubbing off on me'