“I have been selling groundnuts for more than 8 years now in Vijayawada. The aroma of roasted groundnuts and the smoke of the freshly boiled peanuts lead my customers to me. I used to sell groundnuts near the Panja Center main road before but now because of the COVID 19 protocols, I was asked to relocate my stall here at Gandhi hill. I grew up in Guntur in a small agricultural family. We were extremely poor so my parents got me married early when I was just 16. My husband used to sell sodas for livelihood while I would take care of household chores. Life moved on and over time we had two daughters. But things slowly changed from bad to worse as we suffered huge losses in business and my husband’s health started to deteriorate completely.
Life became extremely difficult and challenging as my husband got addicted to alcohol. The doctor’s adjudged that both his kidneys were failing and he needs treatment immediately. That’s when I decided that I would do everything in my power to get my husband out of this situation.
We had shifted him to an emergency ward in a multi-specialty hospital in Guntur. We had no money to bare the treatment charges so I took a loan of 3 lakh rupees to try out all the possibilities for his treatment but in vain. We lost him within seven months and he died due to unfortunate kidney failure. It was an earth-shattering moment for me. I had two daughters to look after and had no financial assistance from my family. I was all alone and heartbroken. Eventually, I started focussing on healing my heart and gathering some courage to face life. I used to work two shifts a day continuing my husband’s goli soda business in order to educate my children. It was hard work. After a few years, I started facing health complications and could no longer continue the soda business. I am currently selling roasted and boiled groundnuts on the streets. I had managed to get my older daughter married three years ago. The only thing I hold on to in life is the fact that my daughters are doing well in their lives. I always pray for their well being and I want their lives to be filled with nothing but happiness and success.”
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