I was born in 1964 in Pune. My father worked in a textile factory, and in our house sewing machines arrived way sooner than any books or bags did. I went to Shahu Maharaj Marathi Vidhalaya till seventh standard. I liked school, getting ready, having gajra in my hair every day and I was hard working.
In 1977 I had my first ever job. I started working at a small tailoring shop named Chaitrali Textile. How? My dad knew the shop owner through a long old friendship. Any festivals at home meant new clothes but those clothes never arrived from a fancy shop, our family everytime had clothes for festive occasions sewed from small textile sewing shops. I picked the colors I liked and eventually I learned the art of making these clothes.
I was thirteen at the time. In the first few months I only cut loose threads and sewed buttons. When finally I got the opportunity to stitch a blouse on my own, and never realized I ended up sewing 6 per day. I walked home feeling better earning. I gave my whole wage to my mother every month. It never felt like my money.
I stayed there for seven years. Then I got married, and the shop job ended.
After the wedding I went to work in a factory, my dad used to work in the same factory. I wound thread at first and worked as a garment factory worker stitching clothes and finishing products. I stayed twenty three years, in the same place and the same job. I had four kids, 3 daughters and 1 son. My in-laws' family for that matter really encouraged me to work in a factory without the pressure of housework. Becoming a housewife I came to manage both, and becoming a mother did give me a tough time but work never left.
A woman factory worker, the factory noise never stopped for me, and the thread dust got into my hair and my saree. That's how I came home every day. By evening my fingers felt stiff because back pain had given up but I had the freedom of earning for myself. I woke up before everyone else, cooked, packed the dabba, and left. When I came back I had to do it all again.
But I’ll say this, when salary came, it came in my hand. I earned it and nobody had to give it to me. "सातवीनंतर शाळा सुटली, पण हातातलं काम कधी सुटलं नाही." Today, after my job I never really put the needle down, though, at home, neighbours and women from the lane bring me their blouse pieces, and I stitch blouses for these women and earn for me while being a homemaker. It's not a salary that I do it for, I get pension today, but it's me and my hands still know what to do exactly.