Hemlata Yadav, R.I.P.
Hemlata, 19 years old, who dropped out of the education track and took up a daily-wage job to help pay her younger brother’s fees, was one of those killed in the blasts of 11 July.Exactly a week before her death… (Hemlata) and her family had moved to the first flat in their lives: a 225-square-foot home in Jogeshwari, part of a government rehabilitation colony for those displaced by a road-widening project.
Perhaps, the prospect of a new home with a new roof— “she was very excited about living in a flat,� says her mother—got the two sisters to look to a new future and take risks. So they dropped out after Class XII and two months ago, joined the 3500-strong Home Guards corps at a salary of Rs 90 a day. That Rs 180 extra meant it was easier to pay the convent school fees for their younger brother Yogesh.
Stories within stories…and such heart-breaking ones.
BTW, who are the “home guards”?
Comment by km — July 31, 2006 @ 12:16 pm