A father’s pandemic

A tailor in Gurugram is anxious for his daughters’ education

He calls himself “mayoos”, or disappointed.

This is something.

Ajit Singh Nivediya — Sudama to friends — isn’t one of those folks to be easily disappointed (his smile is infectious). But this year of the pandemic, and especially its current surge, along with the weeklong lockdown that started in Gurugram, where he lives, have finally taken their toll. The most crushing consequence —“I want my daughters to have a good education. I’m unable to give it to them.”

“I’m helpless,” he says, chatting on the phone from his one-room home in Sheetla Colony. It’s seven in the morning, and Mr Nivediya woke up a while ago. A tailor, his wife and son died some years ago, leaving him alone to take care of his two girls. Every morning he rides a bicycle to his little establishment in Sector 31, but is obliged to stay at home due to the lockdown. “My earnings plummeted since the start of the bimari (disease), most customers stopped coming.”

Some kind acquaintances, including long-time patrons in the apartments, have helped him survive this tough period, giving him cash and sometimes food rations.

But that’s not enough to support the education of his daughters, he admits. The private school closest to home, he explains, is unaffordable for him, and the government school “is beyond a road where my girls might not be safe”. Until early last year, Harshita and Sonakshi were in another private school, with affordable fee, but it was only going till 8th standard, which the elder girl finished before the first lockdown.

Yes, of course, the father is aware that schools have been doing online classes throughout this year, “but we have only one smartphone, which made it impossible for both the girls to attend their respective classes at the same time.”

A few times the sisters downloaded educational apps on the phone, “but those apps charge money.”

So, since last year, Mr Nivediya’s daughters spent most of their time indoors, doing the housework, such as cooking the meals. The father’s limitations have made them prematurely thrifty for “they no longer ask me to buy chips or fruits for them.”

Until last year, Harshita, who was then in 9th standard, and Sonakshi, who was in 7th, longed to be an engineer and a doctor (the pic is from that year-old chat). But now? “I still want to be a doctor and didi still wants to be an engineer, but papa doesn’t have enough money,” explains Sonakshi. “Maybe things will improve by next year and we will go back to school,” she says.

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