How Poor Manjudevi’s Youngest Daughter Became A Crorepati!

All her life, Manju Devi struggled to make ends meet. She died a poor lady.

Her youngest daughter, Tanushree, became a crorepati by the time she was still in her teens, courtesy her mother! But how?

Manju Devi was born in a well to do family. When she was in class six, her father came back home one day and announced:

To cut a long story short, those were the days of the British Raj. Girls were meant to do the biddings of others – like those of the parents first, their spouses and in-laws next, and finally they were at the mercy of their children.

Manju Devi was no exception to this piece of custom and tradition.
Her marriage was a gala event. She stepped into the joint family of her husband at the age of 13!

In due course of time, she raised a large family. Amidst all the hectic demands of daily chores, Manju Devi still didn’t give up on the hobby of collecting coins. That was her passion and love of life.

In due course of time, her sons and daughters got married. They spread out to different corners of the globe for their livelihood and survival.

Never miss real stories from India's women.

Register Now

Whenever they came home, they made it a point to bring the coins of not only the countries they had settled down in but also of the neighbouring countries for their mother.

Manju Devi, in due course of time, had coins from America, Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland and Ireland, just to name a few of those countries. She even had coins from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet, and all those countries closer home.

Manju kept those coins in empty bottles – coins of all shapes and sizes. Coins made of different metals like copper, silver, and she had even one, made of gold.

In the early years of her marriage, she would take out the bottles and look at those coins from near and far. Some had pictures of some unknown faces engraved on the coins.

In one bottle, she collected the Indian coins. Most of them had Gandhiji engraved. Some like a coin of 1936 that she collected, was, bought from a local fair, had the flag of a country on one side and the value, year imprinted on the other side.

As years rolled by, Manju Devi had little time for her favourite pastime, entangled in the webs of married life as she was. Yet she still kept the bottles far from the probing eyes.

Her children and grandchildren made fun of her keeping those bottles close to her bed for she never lost sight of them.

“Thamma (granny), why don’t you ever let us anywhere near the bottles of coins?” Asked one.

“Which one has the gold coin? Heard it from Baba that it is worth rupees fifty thousand. I want you to bequeath the coin to me in your will, will you?” Said another.

“As long as she has the bottles, our thamma dear will stay a pauper,” opined a third.

Manju Devi kept the smile on her face but got angry if anyone took the bottles and kept them longer than required. The world had changed and gone were the days when one’s children, let alone grandchildren, took care of things belonging to their grandparents.

Till the last day, she held on to the bottles for dear life, amidst all the poverty and squalor. Her children were not interested in those bottles anymore.

Her younger daughter, who remained stayed with Manju Devi till the end, was going through the paper one day, after the demise of her mother, when a piece of news caught her eye.

‘If anyone had a 10- paisa coin minted at a place not far from Kolkata, she or he would be rich as the coin was a rare one.’

And there was a history of why the coin was minted first and withdrawn later.

“Didn’t Ma show us a coin like that?” Tanushree said to herself.

Her curiosity made her take out the bottle of Indian coins from the almirah discarded in a corner.

She poured out all those useless coins and rummaged through the pile. There amongst many was the 10-paisa coin!

Tanushree looked at it closely. It matched the description in the paper down to a T.

Tanushree became a billionaire when she was 17!

Image credit: still from Women Power short film/Content ka Keeda, YouTube

Comments