57) The program manager at Oxform

Reshma Advani’s day begins at 5 in the morning as she takes a walk in the Rann of Kutch. She is back at her desk in a makeshift office by 7 doing paperwork, by 9 supervises a medical camp where women and children of the village will be vaccinated against Chickungunya and later take a class for two hours for VIII standard students at a nearby school before finally organizing a late night adult literacy programme. She is only 28 but already a Programme Director at Oxfam and one of those silent warriors in the social development sector.

The Advanis were our neighbours in Jodhpur and I grew up with Reshma in that dusty town. We went to a Hindi medium school till graduation sharing the excitement of those growing years.

Reshma was a weak girl often prey to illness and her poor, illiterate mother; a victim of domestic violence. Her father, a villain and a temper on the edge of his nose. Both daughter and mother endured for they had no option. He owned a couple of lorries and made money transporting goods from place to place. The earnings were considerable for a small family but that plighted trade had many downfalls.

The lorries could suffer accidents, the drivers could run away with money or run over someone and that entailed compensation and greasing the cops.

Reshma invariably topped in college and it was no surprise that she graduated as a rank holder in the university. She enrolled into a post graduate programme upon winning the prestigious Tata fellowship scholarship.

Till now she had not stepped out to Rajasthan and now doing the course at Mumbai entailed a major cultural shock. Her spoken English was poor and the textbooks now came in English instead of Hindi.

Reshma worked hard to get acquainted with the language; waking up at 6 to catch BBC news and going through the English newspapers and magazines after giving up on Hindi ones. A helpful faculty, considerate fellow students, helped make the transformation and it took just 6 months for her to be at ease in the language and the atmosphere.

At home the father grew more violent with the mother and brutality increased now that daughter was in far away Mumbai. I would fill in on the gory events and implore her to do something for the poor woman.

Reshma came to Jodhpur her after two years and she had changed a lot – more confident and a stronger mind. She just bundled off her mother leaving just a note for her father that they were going out for good. Enough is enough and daughter and mother were bound for Mumbai trying to shake the trauma of a diseased husband.

Reshma gets a stipend and that added to a part time job ensured that they had decent quarters at Mumbai.

After her Ph.d in psychology, she joined Oxform as a project trainee and it’s taken her just 5 years to rise to a programme director.

This simple village lass has gone to most parts of Europe on company travel; gives speeches that are often quoted in the local press and one of Oxform’s reliable managers.

Through the years of sweat and pain, little Reshu could do all this and more – just on her own. She took her mother to Haridwar and Rishikesh and her mother cried in delight,” You have done what even a son won’t do”.