I
consider most Indian women to be human dynamos. The number of things
they pack in a day`s work is amazing. They work 24x7x365 days. There are no
Sundays or holidays for them. For those who do some jobs in addition to
managing a home, life is even tougher. There are millions of them in the world.
What makes 64-year-old Mythili Seshadri stand out in this crowd is
her will power to do things she enjoys doing despite a Liver condition, which
calls for her to be extremely careful in her food habits, medicines that she
can take, and also the kind of activities she can undertake.
Right
from her college days in Coimbatore, where she was born and brought up, she was
inclined towards social service. She was actively involved both in the National
Service Scheme ( NSS) and Community Social Service (CSS), which was to
influence her career choice later in life. Her marriage at 24 took
her to Bombay, where her husband, a successful advertising professional, was
working. While she was brushing up on English speaking skills, she
decided to get a B Ed from the Bombay Teachers Training College and qualify herself
as a teacher.
` I was
thrilled when I learnt that out of 1600 applicants, only 100 had been
shortlisted and I was one of them,` says Mythili.
Arrival
of her son within two years of her marriage prevented her from taking up any
teaching assignments in Mumbai. The family moved to Chennai in 1988, where she
was to realize many of her dreams over the years. As a person who
cannot sit at home idly, in her spare time she learnt Shorthand, Typing,
Tailoring & Embroidery. It was in 1997, a friend influenced her to consider
teaching special children. She joined Vidya Sagar, a school for
special children in Chennai, as a volunteer in their Vocational Rehabilitation
Unit. Her formal training in Tailoring and Embroidery helped her
become instrumental in starting the Tailoring unit in Vidya Sagar. She
taught the students to make drawstring bags, scrunchies ( cloth rubber
band), hand towels to name a few. These were done using the scrap materials
given by a boutique in the neighborhood.
`I was
delighted when I found that some of the students I had trained were given jobs
in a well-known Boutique, where they did well. But I also realized that,
being a mere volunteer, not an employee, you are not taken seriously by the
management. So I decided to get a formal qualification as a special
educator by joining `Bala Vidyalaya`, a school for the hearing
impaired, and did a one-year diploma in Teaching Young
Hearing Impaired, a course which is recognized by the
`Rehabilitation Council of India`.
Along
the way, she also completed two short-term courses in Alternative and
Augmentative Communication conducted by Vidya Sagar. After working
in Bala Vidyalaya for a couple of years, she decided to quit and
started teaching language therapy to children with special needs at home. Her
students also included children with additional disabilities like mental
retardation, autism, cerebral palsy besides being from different age groups.
This one–on–one therapy helped children who cannot hear and speak to get
integrated into mainstream schools.
`It was
tough because these children do not understand direct communication, but
respond to alternative methods of teaching where you patiently take them
through several stages using different props to make them understand things.
The course also involved training the parents of such children so that they can
continue to practice the lessons at home. It was heartening when, after two
years of training, they were ready to be integrated into mainstream schools.
That is the biggest satisfaction from the job I got.` However, since teaching
such children necessitated speaking loudly, she developed vocal cord problems,
which posed the danger of Mythily losing her ability to speak. So reluctantly,
she had to give up a career she loved so much.
This
setback did not deter Mythili from pursuing other interests, which helped her
bring out the inherent creativity in her. She channelized her creative
abilities by involving herself in making handicrafts and a variety of cloth
bags, curtains, etc. Most of these items were made from waste cloth
and other waste materials, thus furthering the concept of `Waste to wealth`.
However, she did not do it as a regular business but produced bags, curtains
from old saris, wall hangings, plastic bag dispensers, to name a few, based on
specific demands from friends and relatives.
Mythili says, “I stitch my blouses, salwars myself. By
not depending on the tailor, I save money and time chasing him. I use the
scraps from these to make other patchwork items like cushion
covers, pouches, potholders, etc.”
While she was busy creating useful items from waste
clothes, another friend introduced her to the fascinating world of `Quilts`,
which again opened up opportunities for converting used clothes into
mattresses, table runners, wall hangings, etc. For this she had to
attend a training workshop run by `The Square Inch(TSI)` in her neighborhood
before she could start working on the quilts. She participated in the
First International Quilt Festival held in Chennai, in 2019 where her
quilt titled `Pinwheel in a square inch` was displayed. It was made using more
than 5000 cloth pieces, each measuring one square inch. Since then she has participated in 3
International Quilt Festivals organised by The Square Inch.
When I
asked her about the process of making a quilt, she said, ` I first think of an
idea, convert the idea into a picture/drawing, then look for
materials to make the quilt, and then get into action. I used an old saree to
create a quilt to cover the Diwan set in my home. Similarly, I made curtains
out of old cloth materials. Every quilt is like a piece of art. I thoroughly
enjoy making them` says Mythili. She is currently active in the informal group
of quilt makers in Chennai.
Mythili`s
childhood dream of becoming a dancer came true when she was in her early
fifties. She joined a dance school in her neighborhood which was
providing dance training for senior citizens, ranging in age from 50 to 80..
She became a part of the group from the school, which was invited to perform at
the temple & other festivals in the city.
Mythili
did all the above while busy bringing up her son & daughter, who are both
married and blessed her with four lovely grandchildren. A most interesting
aspect of her life is the fact that she never appointed a ubiquitous maid
servant, not even a part-time one, to help her with some
of the household chores. Where did she get the energy for this? Her reply sums
up the practical woman that she is: `I did not have any maid servant all these
years because I realized early that dependence on them can cause unnecessary
anxieties and tensions. My day is not affected by the idiosyncrasies of a maid.
With a strong willpower as my strength, I have been managing the home and
my outside interests. Having a two-wheeler of my own has also helped
me in being independent to move
around on assignments.`
Mythili
also gives full credit to her supportive husband for encouraging her to do
whatever she enjoys doing. As they say, there is always a man behind
a successful woman and vice versa
