Velu is a taxi driver my husband and I know well. He has two sons and a daughter. The good thing is he owns his taxi, he saved up to buy the car. But it means his life is tough--going on long distance assignments at a moment's notice, getting by with little sleep (or sleeping in his vehicle), missing regular meals, being plagued by backache, so on and so forth. But Velu doesn't mind the hard work. As the sole breadwinner, he is used to it. Besides, he wants his children to have a good education. Rani, a mother of three, is a cook. Like many domestic help--she works in two or three places to earn a decent living because her husband is a drunk and of no help at all. She used to cook for my family too at one point but not any more. Rani's mainstay was her long-term employer--a family where she had been the cook for some 10-12 years. Two years ago, this family decided to sponsor Rani's daughter Anitha, then 15 years old, for a beautician's course in Bang...
Some facts, a little fiction and random facets of life....