Taju

“I was about three years old, when my father was an ordinary worker in Cuttack. I was very attached to him. My memories as a toddler are faint but I remember how he carried me on his firm shoulders. And there was this one time when an ant bit me on my forehead and he was so angry, he sent my mother to her place for a day because of her carelessness…(laughs) He loved me that much, after all. But then he soon died in a mishap when my younger sister was still in my mother’s womb. My mother was merely at the tender age of thirteen at that time so her family decided that she should 

start a new family elsewhere. So it was agreed upon the fact that my father’s family will keep me and they will let my mother and the younger daughter go. So, I stayed at my father’s place, where I was born and my mother was soon married off in some other family.

I was so much pampered with love as a kid that after these incidents, I often used to look at the 

other kids of my family and think, “Why do I not receive this kind of love anymore? “. Apart from 

that, they used to beat me, made me run errands for the household, never allowed me to go to 

school even. When I grew up a little, I came to know that they weren’t my parents. We were in 

Jajpur town then and the neighbors gave me directions to my mother’s residence and off I went. The moment my mother saw me from a distance, she came to me rushing and kissed me everywhere. At that point I realized, she must be my mother, this must be how a mother’s warmth feels like. A mother’s love is different from all others, isn’t it? I stayed with my mother’s new family for sometime until I was faced with brutal behavior, just like previous times. My mother couldn’t help me too. So later, my grandmother (who loved me a lot) took me with her to my village in Rourkela. I started studying there at a headmaster’s house, where I later helped him in his house chores. 

One evening, when I had been doing the washing at the headmaster’s house, I slipped and fell off the stairs and broke my femur bone. The treatment was delayed since there was no money. Some neighbors helped and I was finally operated by Dr. Sanatan Rath. However, after the operation, my parts below the waist got paralyzed. 

But I am really grateful to God that I am alive today and honestly, I don’t take this to heart or let my disability affect me in any way. I still think I am very able like any normal human being. I help the nuns here in whatever way I can. I sometimes sew. I like singing, listening to the radio and petting my two cats right here.

When I came to Daya Ashrama, it took me some time to understand that even if I might not have a family, God is always there for me. The doctors had said I wouldn’t live for more than a year but here I am, haha. I am a Muslim girl but here I have been praying to Lord Jesus and I don’t think there’s any difference. God is one and I am grateful to Him, today. 

My mother still comes to visit me along with my sister and stepbrother. At first, I was reluctant to 

meet them. I used to tell her, had she been there with me, all this would not have happened. But 

now I just think it was all fated and it’s okay. I am at a good place now with amazing company and I like it here. No matter what, life goes on and we should focus on the brighter side, always!" 

-Taju