[Dialogue] For those of you who remember Ratnamala Meshram /Jadhav

[Mary D'Souza]

This is a quick note to those of you who know *Ratnamala Meshram/Jadhav *



Hritodaya and I have just returned from the wedding reception for Raju
Jadhav and his bride of one month, Manisha.



Ratnamala, the mother of the groom, looks very good and happy.  Raju was
particularly keen that he would marry a person approved by his mother.



Though the occasion was the wedding of the elder son Raju , for me the real
celebration was the courage of Ratnamala to face the challenges of her life.



*The story as I know it: *

Ratnamala had two sons from her marriage to Meshram. They are Raju and
Avinash (also known as Pintia ).  They were infants when their father passed
away while working with us in Nava Gram Prayas.  I forget the exact details
of the illness but it was something like tuberculosis that lay undetected.  At
the time of Meshram's illness and death Avinash was found to have polio and
his legs were affected. He now walks with crutches but continues to have the
bright eyes he always had.



Ratnamala stayed with the ICA at the Mumbai facility and worked as best as
she could with our structures and demands while her children grew up.



Ratnamala then married Raghunath Jadhav who was also with the ICA and worked
with Brian Stanfield and the Research team in Mumbai.  When ICA disbanded
Ratnamala and  Raghunath moved to Pune.  Raghunath had a job at a petrol
pump as a cashier. The two children took on the Jadhav surname. They
consider him consider him as their Dad. Raghunath passed away while they
were in their early teens.



Since then Ratnamala  has been working at Hotel Kohinoor in their
housekeeping section.  She picked up the job after Raghunath passed away and
has brought up and educated the children. It is really quite lovely to see
the devotion of the boys to their mother.



Raju was working for a bus company.  With encouragement from John and Linda
Cock Raju was hired by Kanbay and he now holds a responsible position in a
team of 8 people that does all the procurement for the company. Avinash is
working in the finance section of another company in Pune.



*How the marriage came about*:
Raju got married to Mukesh Taksande's older brother's daughter.  The
marriage was arranged by none other than our Yeshoda Verma.  At the
reception Rekha (Yeshoda's daughter) and her husband Manoj were present.  Manoj
is Anil and Lucina Prasad's son.

This is sent to you by Mary D'Souza in Pune, India
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