When we were little, our mother passed away. After mothers’ death, our father started spending all his money on getting drunk and saved nothing. When our elder sister was married, he sold the house to keep up with the expenses and bought a smaller one in exchange. He was yet to register the house under his name, but he had no money left to do that, so he sold that house too and we moved to a rented place. Then my father married off my younger sister. He took 5000 rupees for the wedding, kind of sold her. Luckily, our brother-in-law was a good man. My father drank away all that money. The situation at home worsened, my younger brother was sent to live with our elder sister. I was left alone with my father.

There was no one to stop him from doing what he wanted or talk sense to him. There was no food. Once, I spent three days without any food. I did not know how to cook, I was very young, might have been around eight. I stayed home, crying without any whereabouts of my father. When the neighbours found me starving, they gave me food. Even there, my father did not pay any rent, so the landlords kept our stuff and threw us out. We had nothing left. We were on the street. None of our relatives came to support us.

I would help my father with his sewing machine work till noon. In the afternoon, he would send me to go and eat at the Dandi Swami temple along with the beggars. I would come back and help my father for the rest of the day. Occasionally, I would get something to eat at night, otherwise I would go hungry to bed. Whatever my father earned, he spent it on alcohol. He didn’t spare a penny for us.

I was eight when I started learning the repair work. I grew up working along with my father. When I turned sixteen, I started working for someone else in the market. One night, I was asleep and I heard my younger brother crying. When I went and saw, blood was flowing out of his hand. My father had hit him with a brick. That day we got together and beat him up for the first time. I said “You have destroyed everything for us and yet you do not show any sign of change.”