Manjinder K Jagdev – My Mother

My mother, a highly intelligent, was denied schooling in rural Indian village due to her ‘not having a male escort’ in India in the 1950s. In the UK, she tirelessly worked as a seamstress for almost forty years. As a woman with a strong Sikh faith, she viewed work as a service (serving) God (Punjabi word – ‘seva’). Her position in her own childhood, as the first born in a family of ten children, taking on role of responsible adult from an early age, made her a fighter and survivor. She was extremely resilient and passionate about her children.