“I come from a family of five children. Out of the five, only two of us siblings remained. My late parents used to sell dried fish at the Suryalanka beach in Bapatla. As we were short of funds, I didn’t go to school. We led a tough life. I remember the time where having one meal a day was a burden. As we needed to make ends meet, I used to help in the household works. Later, I started selling vegetables here at Agiripalli 30 years ago. I am usually here from 7:30 a.m. till 5 p.m. My husband passed away ten years ago due to a heart attack and I live with my daughter, Kumari, and her family. See that small blue house there? That’s where we live. We buy these vegetables at Kolli Sarada wholesale vegetable market which reopened last month after the temporary lockdown. I go there early in the morning to pick up the best of the vegetables. After work, I head home and all I want to do is play with my grandson. Although I could retire and put my feet up at this age, I won’t. As there are other vendors selling vegetables near by, competition is tough. There are days when there are no sales at all and days where I could sell the days stock by evening. While my daughter is doing fine, my son-in-law who suffered from a major loss in his business is looking out for a job. I don’t think I can retire until he finds a stable job.”

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