Source: Humans of Bombay

“We have always lived in a joint family. When my father in law was alive, things were great – everyone was living in harmony, we were very well off, we used to travel the world and spend all our time together.

Once he passed away, the family dispute over property started almost instantly, everyone was fighting for the greater share of the business. We were left with nothing but a barren piece of land, on which we began to build our house from scratch.

We had two sons both of whom wanted to be engineers. There came a time where we couldn’t afford anything, so we would have to ask one son to switch from engineering.

I never wanted to compromise on the education of my children, so willingly I gave my jewellery to sell– all of it. What good were these materialistic things, if they didn’t help my family in the time of need?

I also decided to start working as a designer for a fashion jewellery company to supplement my husband’s income and make sure that we could give our children everything they required.
I brought my children up, teaching them the value of everything at every step of the way.

During their engineering years, they would barely spend any money. My son here began to take coaching classes while he was still studying to help us out. For a very long time they didn’t know that I had sold my jewellery, but when they found out they were so touched — from their first earning both my sons bought me a gold chain.

They have both started coaching classes, to fulfil my dream of educating thousands like my sons who have to struggle to get an education. My values have gone further than any expensive car or watch I could have gifted them– because today they have a compassionate heart towards children who are ill-affording and they educate hundreds of such children, free of cost.”