Penned By Board Member, Alo Pal
Abhinaya is the oldest of three siblings, the younger two being boys. She was a freshly delivered burden to her parents with her first breath. Her father, a fisherman, disinterested in the education of his children in general, cared even less about his daughter. Every conceivable cliché applied to Abhinaya. Despite being the brighter child, her brothers went to better schools; they got new clothes while she wore hand-me-downs.
Her BA English second year was paid for by the kind-hearted librarian of her college, while she self-financed her third year by selling fish and doing stitching and embroidery work, a skill she had acquired at 12 from an NGO. With an indifferent father who would not even invest in thought, let alone deed, for his daughter, and a mother who actively favored her sons, Abhinaya was married off early, and their burden thus transferred.
If Abhinaya was born caged, wings clipped, restricted by the rusted bars of archaic prejudice, her husband became the wind beneath her wings. Not only did Abhinaya experience undiluted love and care for the first time, but her husband was also elated and loved to bits the two daughters she bore him. He supported Abhinaya’s studies for her B.Ed., which she attended full-time and completed between the two pregnancies.
The freedom, and especially the lack of judgment, unleashed in Abhinaya a spirit to work hard, to dare to dream, and to work towards pulling her family out of a rut of squalor and mediocrity. Her husband had a piece of land, and they decided to save judiciously the money his fishing brought in during high season, as well as money from her pawned jewelry, to start building a bigger, better house.
With her B.Ed., she ventured into the job market and was recruited by Sharana as a teacher for our evening Homework Help Centre. She worked with us for about eight months, and by then she had attended a few group meetings with our women and had especially noticed our digital lab classes, scores of young men and women in and out of our lab five times a day, leaving with a certified qualification recognized by Digital India.
Despite her BA and B.Ed., she had noticed that computer literacy was a stepping stone to much better prospects. From July through September, she attended our Digital Lab course and was immediately recruited as a teacher-cum-admin support in a school. Salaries were indeed higher, but in just three months she knew she was capable of more, given the right break and the scope to innovate.
Despite discouragement from a family acquaintance who had mentioned an opening in a homestay front office suited for men, she applied and was selected overwhelmingly because of her knowledge and familiarity with computers. This new job has no doubt been a windfall for Abhinaya, but much more than that, it has been an opportunity to innovate, think of business ideas, and enhance revenue for her employer, who has in turn given her a free hand to explore and expand her capacities.
The result, Abhinaya has created and maintains active Instagram and YouTube accounts for the homestays she manages. She shoots, edits, and uploads her reels, shorts, and carousels. She not only showcases the homestay but has also advertised the space as a party venue. She takes on full responsibility for decorations and catering and has now transformed the lobby of the guest house into a birthday party venue for hire.
Her manager, a kind-hearted gentleman in the merchant navy, is not only delighted with her commitment to work but also encourages her to grow and dream big. What is more, Abhinaya has become a veritable entrepreneur. She has taken loans to buy two-wheelers; she is following up to comply with RTO requirements for the correct registration of her scooters so that she can start a legitimate bike rental business as an additional facility for guests and, of course, a sizeable boost to her income. This, again, is fully supported by her boss.
On the personal front, the ground floor of the house is now built. She has fulfilled her wish to give her daughters their own space. She has financed her brothers’ acquisition of additional qualifications to improve their prospects.
While it is true that her father did not even come to see her daughters when they were born, today he is a transformed man and dotes on his granddaughters. Abhinaya was a graduate, but her husband had studied only up to the third standard. Bogged down by the prejudice heaped on the girl child since birth, it was this man, however, who nurtured her willingness to study and better their life.
Despite the overt favoritism by their parents, Abhinaya’s brothers have always loved their sister dearly, and Abhinaya helps them without reserve. Abhinaya’s boss, another exceptional man, has been a source of encouragement and strength for her new self. Sharana, on the other hand, crucially upskilled her significantly, after which she became unstoppable.
