The sunshine smile...
Image source: Milaap.org Do you see her smile? It just tore me up to see her smile. She must have been told by the photographer to do that, and she, in all her innocence, would have put her best grin forward. In the hope that she would receive a loan in no time. To pursue her dreams. To bury her pain. To become financially independent and move on with her head held high. For, she was a devadasi . An archaic tradition that entailed young girls to serve the Lord all through her life, thus rendering her inadequate in any other skill, or education. These devadasis who had once enjoyed exalted status for being consorts of the Lord, had become lesser mortals with the passage of time, with no means of support and branded with social stigma. On top of it, they had children. Too bad if they were daughters. I came across the Milaap Hope project through Indiblogger and as I flipped through profile after profile of women, each afflicted with her own degree of unfortuna...