“I stopped crying a long time ago. There were days when crying was the only way of finding some relief. The heart would feel unburdened. But crying never changed a thing. And when you are hungry, you do not cry. You just sit and stare at the sky. Life did not change for me even after marriage. In my husband’s house, the only way to survive was to get work and bring wages back home. But the poor never got work. I never got work, my husband maybe worked a few days a month. The fireplace crumbled because there was no heat and the pots and pans housed cats and mice. Every morning, I searched for wild plants and we all ate it with water. The water did not come in bottles like the ones you see in the shops. But we all survived the ordeal. I have 4 girls and 2 boys. The girls are married today and the boys are working in different cities in India. They send money home and rice and lentils are no more a problem. The problem is how do we get out of the way we live, half buried in mud while rain drops on our foreheads. While the women sit at home waiting for their husbands working far away to come back to their children. It all makes me sad but I have stopped crying a long time ago.”