Shakuntala Raju Shares her Story

My name is Shakuntala. I don’t know my exact date of birth, but I think I am in my early 50’s. I was born in a village in Tamil Nadu, near Tindivanam. My father was a police officer and my mother a house maid. They had two more children after me, my brother Venkatesh and my sister Jothi.

I studied in a government primary school. At this time my father was absent. He lived and traveled in the whole Tamil Nadu, from casern to casern. That’s why my uncle raised me after my 8^th birthday, while my mother was taking care of my brother and sister. They didn’t go to school. My uncle took care of me with the money my father was sending. I’ve studied one year in Walter Skeder High School, then the next year I was in St Philomena Girls School, runs by the sisters of Cluny. I loved studying, but also spinning and embroideries. I stayed one year in a hostel. It was my last year in school, I left it when I was 12 years old.

A few time before, during a fight at work, my father hit one of his superior. Because of that he was suspended and came back to the village. He found a job in brickyard for himself, my mother and me.

One day my “mama” Raju (my maternal uncle) came to visit. His wife had just died, letting him alone with three children. He was looking for a new wife and soon, my mother was arranging my marriage with him. I was 17 years old and he was 20 years older. At least my mother didn’t have to pay for dowry, and Raju was the one who bought my thali. When my mother decided our marriage, I didn’t ask myself too many questions. She was the one deciding and I had to obey, even if deep down I was hesitating. I was very beautiful but Raju was very black. Still he was attractive. But today he is old and sick, and often my neighbors tell me I shouldn’t have agreed to marry someone that old. They may be right. I know that if the same thing was offer to my grand-daughter I wouldn’t force her.  

For 7 years we lived in Nemmeli where my husband had some land. We grew there rice and groundnuts. To buy some seeds, Raju sold his two cows. Two years after marriage, I had our first child, a boy named Gajendran. Then a second one, Mohan, who died when he was 8 due to brain cancer, and two more sons, Chandran and Nagaligam, and two girls: the first one didn’t have any name because she died 12 days after her birth due to a rat bite. The second one is Menaka.

  

During heat season, when the land was no good, Raju went to Madras where his cousin lived. There, he rented a cyclo-rickshaw and carried people.

In 1980, during MGR time (M.G. Ramachandran), we settled permanently to Madras. We couldn’t survive with the farm benefits only. We found a hut to rent in place called Sathyavani Muthu Nagar, which is today the Gandhi Nagar slum. Back then there were only a hundred huts with palm leaves scattered between bushes. We had to cross the Kuvam Rivam near the general hospital or beyond Rippon building, behind Madras city hall in Periamet to find drinkable water and bring it back in kodams.

Raju borrowed 2000 rupees to buy a cyclorickshaw. He refunded it little by little, 20 or 30 rupees each day because he was earning till 100 rupees per day by carrying people! At this time there was no auto-rickshaw, but today I see one in front of every house!

  

My elder son, Gajendram, is a rickshaw puller. He went to school until 4^th standard but after he didn’t want to go on. In the morning he was pretending to go to school but when he was at the gate he was running away and roaming in the streets all day long. His friends told me the truth so I hit him, but nothing changed. Today he is 33 years old, he is married and has two daughters. The elder one is 13 years old, she works in a glass and mirrors shop at Parry’s Corner. She brings 100 rupees every day to her family. The second one, Nandhini, is 11 years old. She is studying in 6^th standard. My daughter-in-law, Anjalakshi, is a house maid.

My second son, Chandran, is also a rickshaw puller. He carries fish packages from the market. He didn’t go a lot to school either. I didn’t try to force him because he would have run away. And honestly, in the end I was happy that he and Gajendran brought 20, 30 rupees and food sometimes every night. It helped a lot.

Chandran is married to a woman named Kalaiarasi. They have three children, two boys and one girl. The girl, Gayathri, is in 6^th standard in AIWC school. Her brother is 8 years old and is in 3th standard. The younger one, Santosh, is in Speed trust crèche.

My third son, Nagalingam, worked until two years ago in a glass shop. But since he was drinking a lot, his health got bad. His liver is very bad and he has diabetes. He doesn’t work any more and his wife Alumelu is a house maid. They have two daughters, Sneha and Ramya, who go to school, and one boy, Karthik, who is in Speed trust crèche too.

I had six children but my daughters-in-law only had two or three, they’ve all done the family planning.

My daughter Menaka is born in 1984. She has not been one single day to school. I signed her up in several schools but she kept on crying so I always took her home the very same day. She has always been my favorite and I couldn’t let her cry so I kept her with me. She was playing all day long while I was doing some house chores. When she was 13 years old she started working as a house maid. My sons’ friends were talking badly about it, thinking it was not normal to send her when she already had three brothers working. We made her stop, she only worked for one month. In 1999 she attained puberty and we organized a ceremony for it.

In our neighborhood lived a family from Gutteri, a village close to Tindivanam. They had some relatives there, and one man named Subramani came regularly to Chennai. One day when he was in the slum he seduced my daughter. They had an affair. It was just after Pongal, in 2001. Subramani was already married and had a daughter. He promised to Menaka that he will leave his wife and marry her. She believed him and ran away with him in Gutteri. Her eloping made me feel very bad, sad and betrayed at the same time. My husband advised us to forget about her and not talk about it. But a few months after I learned from the neighbors that Menaka was pregnant. It was during summer monsoon. I went to take her with Subramani. I found them a house near mine and they lived there for four months. But one week before Menaka went into labour, Subramani ran away. We never saw him again. My neighbors told me that he never came back to Gutteri, and I learned a few years later, in 2006, that he got married for the third time.

On November 28^th 2001, Menaka gave birth to my grand-daughter, Dyvia. For five years Menaka and Dyvia stayed with me. My sons, my daughters in law, Menaka, Divya, my husband and I (9 persons and two babies) lived together in two houses. It was actually two rooms linked with one door. Men of the house were giving me their salary and I had to feed the whole family with it. Little by little people forgot what happened, I’ve never heard bad things about my family. In 2006, Menaka found a job as a housemaid in Mount Road.

When the tsunami arrived on december 26th 2004, a black nauseous mud wave invaded the neighborhood. The houses which had the most damages were the one close to the Kuvam river. Mine was flooded and all our belongings were taken. That’s when I heard about Speed trust. The organization made immediately some big distributions. They gave me a big pile of clothes, some groceries, rice, lens, oil, biscuits and mats. The families who had the worst damage were given kerosene heater, bowl water, blankets and dishes.

After that I contacted Speed Trust again to get some help for Divya. Since she was not old enough to go to school I waited for six months, then Divya went to LKG in an English medium school. Since I had little education, I understood the chance Speed trust was offering to Divya. Today my husband is sick, he is in a hospital, and if I die I will be calmed because I know Speed trust will take care of the grand-daughter.

Recently, my neighbors asked Divya: “what will your grand-parents let you? They don’t own anything”. She answered: “I only need their blessing, and I know that Uncle and Auntie (speed trust managers) will take care of my education!”

Divya was four years old when she started school. The same year she got a cataract. Speed Trust took care of every medical expenses, it cost Rs 10 000, and Divya was able to get surgery at Rajan Eye Care Hospital. Now she has a good sight but she needs to carry glasses. She is studying in 4^th standard in Eve Matriculation School. I only regret that she is sitting in the last rows. Last year her teacher hit her on the head. I went to the Head of the school to complain, and the teacher was sanctioned. But since, Divya is sitting in the last row.

I wanted to meet the teacher but the watchman didn’t let me in. Watchmen never let people like us in the school. But I’m happy because now Divya uses a lot of English words:”Yes, No, Come, Go, Shut Up”, and others I don’t know.