“I had always dreamt of being independent in life when I was young. I was only 16 when I got married but I had the privilege of having a love marriage. My husband and I used to live in a small rented house in our hometown in Narayankhed. He was a farmer and I was a homemaker. After the birth of our second, we decided to move to Hyderabad with the hope of starting a business. As parents, our main goal was to educate our children.

While my husband started to ride an auto-rickshaw for a living, I started my own business of selling sugarcane juice seven years ago. My day starts at the break of dawn at 5 am and ends at 9 pm. Every morning, I’d get my children ready for school, cook for the family, and go to work.One thing I’ve learned from marriage is that there are a lot of challenges to learning you have children, but it is not a reason to give up on your hopes and dreams. It’s all about believing in each other’s strengths and moving forward that truly matters.

We have seen our share of highs and lows in the last twenty years of marriage, but we keep reassuring ourselves that good times are coming for us in the future.Today, I own a permanent stall here at Hyderguda, which I can proudly call my second home. However, given the current pandemic, the business has gone down drastically. We are facing a lot of problems these days about the online education of our children. It has taken us years of struggle to establish ourselves and our business here, so we will continue to work hard even in these difficult scenarios. I am thankful for everyone who has supported me to establish my own business.

Earlier during summers, I would earn Rs. 500 to Rs 700 every day but now due to the current pandemic, I am hardly earning Rs. 300. I am taking all the precautions to ensure my customer’s safety and I hope we could withstand the current pandemic situation.”