For over two decades Shantha, a 69-year-old lottery seller, has been appealing to people’s belief in luck to eke out a living.
Those who’ve bought tickets from her may or may not have turned lucky, but her own luck has remained more or less unchanged despite all these years of toil.
At traffic signals, as the light turns red, she hurriedly approaches halted motorists, waving the tickets.
She’s a familiar figure to those who regularly commute along the National Highway Bypass. Initially, she was at Vyttila Junction, but then she moved to Kundannoor Junction and now to Palarivattom Bypass Junction after flyover construction at Vyttila and Kundannoor stood in the way of her work.
8 hours under the sun
Her day begins at 12 noon and by the time she calls it a day at Ernakulam Market, which, she says, guarantees relatively better business than at the junction, she would have put in well over eight hours at work.
The punishing heat lately has made life tough for the frail woman who suffers from kidney problems.
“There is no other way but to work as I need around ₹5,000 a month for medicines. I don’t know any other job nor can I do anything else, as my health is so bad that I depend on my son even for getting my clothes washed,” said Shantha, whose 71-year-old, vision-impaired husband stays with their daughter.
On a good day, she earns around ₹500. But then there are particularly bad days when the unsold tickets leave her in debt.
A native of Aroor, she had earlier run a tea stall there for many years which she was forced shut due to trouble caused by drunk hooligans.
She used to sell lottery tickets at the tea stall, which opened up a new means of livelihood to her.
So what does International Women’s Day mean to her? “It is like any other day under the sun for me,” she gestured towards the sky and walked away as the signal turned red, yet again bringing to halt another long line of potential customers.