Voices From Subsistence Marketplaces by John Hedeman Tom Hanlon Srinivas Venugopal

Author:John Hedeman, Tom Hanlon, Srinivas Venugopal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Madhu Viswanathan
Published: 2017-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Rani.

Chapter 7

Padmavathy: Happy, Healthy, And Wise

Family is of utmost importance to Padmavathy. “I am proud to have created value for at least two generations,” she says. She lives out her values, which include no cheating, no lying, and no borrowing, and she lives out the wisdom gained through hardship, a wisdom that she is passing down to the two generations below her.

Padmavathy is an anomaly. She has lived a life of subsistence in South India for 60 years, in a setting where steady jobs are scarce and careers are all but unheard of.

Yet Padmavathy was steadily employed for 36 years. And in those 36 years, she worked a total of two jobs.

In truth, she has had not two jobs, but two careers —one for 16 years selling tea, coffee, and food items from a stall run out of her home in a small village in Tamil Nadu, India, followed by 20 years working in a hospital in Chennai as a housekeeper and cleaner.

And through her steady work, she raised three sons, all of whom live and work in Chennai. One is a driver for a hospital, one runs his own rickshaw service, and one works in the stock exchange market.

“Our sons helped us sell the tea when they were young,” she says, referring to herself and her husband, who is four years older than she. We are talking in an office in Chennai, with a big fan blowing cool air on us. “But when they got older, they had to concentrate on their studies. And we were not making enough money. So we moved to Chennai in hopes of making more money.” Padmavathy was born in Chennai and married when she was 20. She and her husband moved to the village where he had grown up, Arichampalai. The village, with about 450 residents, is about 150 kilometers south of Chennai. She and her husband rented a small house and they bought teas and later on coffee and small perishables that they sold from a stall outside their home. It provided a meager living, barely enough to get by on.

“But the boys were good,” she says. “They saw our struggles. They did not ask us for things beyond our economic situation. They were supportive.”

Padmavathy has not lived an easy life. The physical and mental stress of making ends meet through physical labor should have taken a harder toll on her body than it appears. She moves with a quiet grace; she is composed and peaceful; and she has the firm skin and smooth complexion of someone 30 years younger. Indeed, when you ask her about her health, she says “It is God’s gift. I don’t have diabetes, no high blood pressure, which is common after fifty years. I don’t have any problems. I am healthy.” She beams proudly as she says this; she is proud of her good health.

When Padmavathy and her family moved to Chennai a little more than 20 years ago, she looked for work that would provide steadier income than her tea stall.

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