BENGALURU: When most software engineers have opted for ‘Work from Home’, a 25-year-old techie is working for her home by selling vegetables to help her ailing mother. Her workplace has changed drastically from online to offline and from AC rooms to the roadside.  But the fiercely proud techie says no job is big or small.

Anukumari, a graduate in Computer Science Engineering who was working in a software firm till February, returned to Mandya to take care of her mother.  After a few days, she was to go back to Bengaluru to look for a job again. But then due to the Covid-19 outbreak, there was lockdown and  the IT market was also down.

Her father Veerender Singh runs a small panipuri shop and her mother used to sell vegetables on the roadside. Her sister is studying. Anu who was trying to make her career in software engineering did not even think twice to take up her mother’s work as her doctor advised the former complete rest.
Every day, Anu and her father get up at 3.30am and go to Mandya Market to buy vegetables in wholesale. They return home only by 5.30 am. At 7am, Anu spreads the vegetables on the roadside in Chamundeshwarinagar and starts selling them.

“My father and my sister take care of the house while I sell vegetables. No job is big or small—I believe in dignity of labour,” says this gritty woman. Anu sells vegetables till 8 pm and goes back home after that. “On an average, we make some Rs 1,000 profit which we spend on mother’s treatment. We have to take her to Mysuru hospital,” she says. She takes the change in her work routine quite stoically. 

I have skill to work as a techie again, says Anu

A techie or a vendor—both have to work hard. While working in a software firm needs mental agility, selling vegetables is more to do with physical work. It depends on our lifestyle. I am selling vegetables to support my parents.

Once things gets better, I have the talent and skills to work again as a software engineer,’’ Anu says with confidence. “None of my family members went to college. It was my father’s dream to make me an engineer. My parents have struggled to give good education to me and my sister. It is now my turn to take care of them,” she says.