Standing Through Life

Born with a disability and battered by back-to-back losses, Raja Begam raises her grandchildren and tends her orchard with consistent care, showing a life built on endurance and work.

- Gowher Bhat

Raja Begam's left leg never worked the way the other did.

In her hometown of Wahibugh, people still remember the girl who always lagged behind, her foot dragging slowly over the earth. Pain was part of life from the very beginning, and she bore it as her fate.

She learned to move carefully, rest when she needed, and keep going without ever asking why.

"I don't remember a time when my leg did not hurt," she says, sitting in her courtyard, fingers brushing the earth beneath her. "So pain grew with me. I stopped asking why."

Children ran past her, climbed trees, disappeared into games. She stayed behind.

Her world moved differently. Perseverance came before hope.

She helped her parents with small tasks: sorting vegetables, feeding the goats, and carrying what she could.

But when pain came, she stopped. When it eased, she worked again.

"I learned early," she says, rubbing her knee, "that stopping forever was not an option."

At twenty-five, her marriage was arranged. Families hesitated because of her leg. The reason was never spoken, but it was understood.

"A man was brought to our home," she says. He came as a ghar-jamai. Villagers whispered, some with sympathy, others with judgment.