“For many years, while I was growing up, I walked with my hands. I had polio. Father and mother were very poor and because of many reasons, living in the society was very difficult. People looked as my condition as a curse of god and not as a disease. My hands bled and hurt while I walked. I remember people yell at me and tell me to take a different route because they did not like the sight of a person dragging herself through their neighbourhood. Countless time I cried and tears ran dry. Father and mother found an aged divorcee and I was married to him and we have children. I had dreams like the others girls but because of the hardships in my life I had stopped dreaming. The one thing that I was good at was traditional Mithila art and when the development centre for women opened here, I got work. And things are not as bad. Today, I paint mirror frames and create other forms of art. I cannot say life has been fair to me but I live with what I have. And it is hope for my children that brings me to work every morning.” (Raj Kumari Mandal, Kuwa 12, Janakpur)