"You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream” - this wise saying hold me up to here. I am Safiya, 37 years old, mother or 2 girls, working as a beautician in my own saloon and an ASAP trainer.
I belongs to a conventional family from a remote village Karinjapadi in Malappuram district. I was one among the nine children to my parents. The family was a conventional Muslim household. I had an ordinary childhood as all other Muslim girls – home, school and Madrassa. We were financially very weak, but strong when it came into love, care, concern and bonding between the family members.
I enjoyed my school days, but it was not too long, at the age of fifteen when I had completed my SSLC exam and waiting for the result, first marriage proposal came. That was the usual practice those days in the Muslim community. I was not prepared for a marriage at the age of 15, but could not hold longer. Thus before even knowing my SSLC result, I got married to the man whose face I had not even seen before.
My in-laws had a joint family and I was panicked in the beginning since I did not know how to manage the responsibility, but slowly I learned to adjust and cope up with the situations came in my way. As an added agony, I failed in my SSLC. Thus I was forced to be inside the four walls of kitchen and had nothing to expect and hope for. We had two daughters in the span of twelve years. As days went by, we realized that the wages my husband earned as an auto driver, was very less for us to meet the both ends of our life. So I joined a stitching class expecting it to fetch us some income. From the switching classes, I heard more about fashion world, but I was not overwhelmed, because I thought that I could not do much in the field because of the society and cultural factors.
Mrs. Safiya
Entrepreneur, ASAP trainer
THE PATH TO FINDING YOUR HEART :
TESTIMONIAL FROM AN ENTREPRENEUR