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This story is about my friend Renu.  She had a big family with mother, father, 3 sisters and a brother।  Renu is the eldest among all the siblings and she is 24 years old. Renu works in Ranchi. Riya is the second sister who is 20 years old and studies in college. Third sister is Simran, 18 years old who is not interested in studies. With a lot of difficulty she has completed her 12th standard. She stays back home as she is not studying.  She did the household chores mostly. They have a cow in the house. She looked after the cow and also did the cleaning of the house. Renu’s family was living properly but this lockdown changed the entire circumstances.  March 23rd the entire country went under lockdown. Renu’s father did small scale work like selling the cows milk and sometimes he worked as a cook in small hotels.

Renu did her M.A and she was working in an office for 2 years. She was able to take care of the household because of her work but when lockdown was declared and was extended she lost her job . Schools, markets, everything closed down and everyone was confined in their houses. Renu wanted to come back to her own house, but there was no conveyance so had to stay back in Ranchi. Renu resided with two other girls, because the market was closed they could not even buy their essential goods. They were running out of money, at times they ate only once a day as they could not afford meals for twice a day. No one liked to stay in that condition and Renu only wanted to come back home. 

On the other hand listening to Renu’s problems her family was getting worried. Renu kept telling her mother “Ma I feel like I am living in a jail, I want to come back home”.

During Renu’s job she returned back to her house around 7pm, she loved to wander around. That’s the reason she would go to the market on the way back from work, buy goods and then return back home, but now she really felt like being confined in a jail. Renu’s mother wanted to bring Renu back home, on the other hand Renu’s father did not work in the hotel’s anymore he only sold the cow milk, he had no other way and whatever money he made would be used to run the house. 

Due to lockdown Renu’s second sister Riya’s studies also stopped as the colleges were closed and also her brother’s studies were affected. This is how the days were passing by, Renu constantly asked to come back home. After two or two and a half months of lockdown Renu’s mother sent their father to Ranchi. At that time there was no conveyance to travel by, that’s the reason Renu could not come back home. AT first Renu’s father kept procrastinating. Her father traveled 180km by his own motorbike. They had a relative’s house in between where his father stopped by and then he started back his journey to Ranchi. On the way back also they stopped by at the relatives house. 

Renu said when she was coming back home with her father she felt the roads were unknown to her. The roads were empty, earlier we could see so many people, shops on the way. Now everything is so peaceful, no traffic, there was no one else on the road except for Renu and her father. She felt that it was a new world altogether. There was no pollution, no crowd, no fights on the road. That was the perfect time for a motorcycle ride and she was enjoying it. Renu was happy returning back home, but everyday there was a new problem which arose. They only had 2-3 cows which was getting some money home. The family had a lot of members because of which it was getting difficult to fulfill everyone’s needs. That was creating a lot of problems. Quarrels started arising among the family members, her youngest brother was disobedient and didn’t listen to the elders. Renu was not happy with the circumstances and kept thinking that how can she fix the condition of her house! Renu’s sisters were not happy either. One day her parents had an argument, Renu’s mother asked for some money and some essential goods from her father, on which Renu’s father got furious. He said “Don’t crib in front of me with miseries, where would I get money from? Ask your daughters !

Renu’s mother- “ Everyone is home, where will they get money from? Renu is also back from Ranchi and whatever she had, has contributed to the family”.

Renu’s father:- “So where will I get it from? And stop repeating the same thing to me.” 

Renu’s father left, Renu asked her mother to keep quiet and keep calm. She said to her mother not to say anything to father, ‘ Renu said we are elders and we would try to do something about it.”

Renu thought that as she has no job right now she could start teaching tuitions to the children next door. She asked her sister Riya to go to the neighbors and tell them that Renu didi will be teaching their children and also would charge them very less. People thought that Renu is well educated and the studies of their children has also been on stop for very long, and there is a shortage of money so they agreed to send their children for tuitions. 

Very soon Renu had her students to teach, she also started teaching her own brother seeing this Riya got excited too. She said “If I start selling milk to the people in the neighborhood it will be great isn’t it?” Renu said “Okay”. First talk to them! Riya spoke to those people , at first they said they would see to it.. Later after 7-8 days they said they would take the milk but only if she sells it at the right price!

Riya was really inspired by Renu, Riya told her father that we should take 2-4 rupees less from customers so we might get good sales of the milk. Looking at the circumstances it's better to have something rather than nothing. Once the lockdown will be over we can switch back to our old price. Renu’s father kept quiet but mother agreed to it. She said” Yes do it”, Renu supported Riya and said “ This is needed right now so you do it”. As soon as Riya got a green flag she started to deliver milk to her customers. Renu and Riya’s younger sister Simran was busy doing household chores, Renu asked her to study so that she could do something ahead in her life. Simran had no interest in studying but she decided to work on what she liked to do. Looking at her sisters she started making fertilizers and sold it with the help of her mother. She also started growing some vegetables at home and sold them, she made few customers as well. Because of these three sisters the circumstances of the house started getting better. 

Later their father also contributed in helping them deliver milk to the customers who lived far away and telling them that my elder daughter teaches tuitions at a very minimal price. You can send your children as well. He also helped Simran to sell her fertilizers. 

One day Renu bantered and told her sisters ``Now I know you are my sisters only, you have learnt so much from me, you both also contribute and help to bear the household responsibilities like me.” Simran said “ Yes yes praise yourself “. This time Renu said with an attitude “ You don’t praise me what can I do? So I praise myself only.” Riya said “ Yes didi this is true that even after losing your job you took the responsibility of the house which motivated us both as well.”

Simran nodded her head and said “Riya didi you are right”.

Renu said “ Okay fine don’t praise me so much, keep faith and confidence In yourself and keep moving ahead in life. She said to Simran that she has to study.

Simran promised- “Promise didi”.

Then all three of them got back and were busy with their work. Their parents were listening to their conversations standing at the door. They were really happy and their eyes were full of tears. 

Written by Priya Kumari (19), Giridih, Jharkhand

This article is part of an Livelihood Action Project of FAT with young girls from Bihar and

Jharkhand to enable them to become professional story writers. The training for story writting was done by Purwa Bharadwaj, and she edited and finalised the story in Hindi. The English translation of this story was done by an intern from TISS, Aqsa and final edits by Meetu Kapoor.