She Refuses To Beg!

Born in a village in West Bengal, Shila was never a fan of restrictions. During those days, education for women wasn’t deemed necessary because of which she was married quite early. Born in a family of a doctor, Shila Ghosh belongs from a village named Bishnupur of West Bengal. She was a tomboy in her childhood and loved swimming. She studied till the third standard and afterwards she was married off to a station-master. Marriage gave her the opportunity to travel throughout the country as her husband’s job came with hefty travel concessions. She had her first child when she was only 14 years old. Being a mother of 3 children with a loveable husband, she had a happy life.

But things changed drastically when Shila’s husband passed away. The education that she never received, Shila was determined to give it to her three daughters and a son. Another tragedy struck as her eldest teenage daughter passed away. Her youngest daughter couldn’t study because of a mental condition. Only the middle child made it to university but dropped out because of severe ear infection. Shila focussed all her energy on her son who grew up to get a job in the Indian Railways. Shila’s son was diagnosed with a lung disease in 1993. “They stopped paying his salary. We had no way to put food on the table or pay for his treatment. I started taking loans to be able to afford the medical expenses. First, they would pump 3 to 4 litres of water out of his lungs. Then it was 7 litres. The day they pumped 11 litres of water, he developed an infection. The next day he died. He was only 47,” she said to a media agency. Soon Shila, her grandson and daughter-in-law took to selling candles. Her son died of a lung cancer in the year of 2010. With her son gone, she and her only grandson had the expense of a huge loan and her grandson was jobless too. This was the time when she first decided to set up their own little business. She started out with selling candles. Their candles would sell out instantaneously but the profit margins made them rethink the business. Shila’s grandson came up with the idea of selling snacks. However, the young one wasn’t good at selling the product so Shila took matters into her own hands. “I told him that you let me do this. People see a cute old lady and they can’t resist buying from me,” she said. (She is cute. Isn’t she?)

In 2013, when a group of students donated money to her she accepted it respectfully but asked them to not do that again. she also refuses to take any kind of unnecessary money from strangers unless and until they buy from her. Her age is evident from her posture but she refuses to stop working. “Why can’t I do it?” she asks. 88-year-old Shila Ghosh sells homemade chips every evening without fail. At an age where most people like to spend their time with family. She cannot walk on her own; her grandson helps her to get to the spot of her business and the traffic police near Haldirams help her a lot. In spite of having such hardships in her life, the cute, charming smile never leaves her face ever! Her voice may have faded with age; her health may have deteriorated too. But one thing that never had an expiry date and that is her soul. Many people commit suicide and turn away from problems easily, but Miss Shila Ghosh surely gives one great advice, “Don’t try to escape it. Face it and deal with it.”