81. I trained him so he could stand on his two feet

Shrimati. Lele lives in a two room apartment in a Chawl in Mumbai. She has four sons who are all well settled. She wears a nine yard sari and thick glasses. She stands straight and has a very confident voice and demeanor. I simply walked in and asked her to share some of her cherished memories with me. She was very quick to grasp what I wanted and talked to me for about half an hour eloquently articulating her thoughts.,,

Thousand Full Moon: Pramila Dattatray Lele

Contributed By: Rohini

I was born in 1928 in a small village called Khurda near Ratnagiri.  I don’t remember the date but I will be 85 in February.  There were three of us.  My Brother passed away when he was really young and my older sister died about 20 years ago. My father used to work at a ship dock. I received formal education till the seventh grade in a school at Ratnagiri. We used to live in Agashe Wada and I studied for some years in a school named after Agashe’s mother “Lakshmibai Agashe’. I got married in 1946. My husband worked as an electrician for a company called ‘Lal Chand Hira Chand’ Things were expensive that time too but not as expensive as these days. You won’t belive but our salary was 100 Rs. Per month at that time.

My son Chanda here had an accident when he was young. He fell and hurt his head. This affected his mental abilities. I wanted him to learn. I used to teach him everything when he started school. But by fourth grade his teacher asked me not to send him any more as he found it increasingly difficult to cope with the school work. I that point I decided to teach him all the household work so he could stand on his two feet. I taught him all the kitchen work, keeping the house in order, shopping for groceries etc. as a result he was able to get a job in a kitchen and today he is independent.

Another event which gives me satisfaction is when my oldest son got a job in a bank. I always wanted him to get a nice job. Not in a factory…there you have to do night shifts and that is hard. He got his job through some one we knew. One of my friends who used to live on the second floor here had very strict in-laws. They would not allow her to visit her parents ever. Her father used to work at the same company as my husband. So my husband would arrange for the father-daughter meeting once in a while. My friend’s father had a friend who worked in a bank. It is on his urging that my oldest son got a job there. I was very happy and content that now he had a regular day job!

All my other boys are well settled and doing well. I am content!!