Left with no work during the COVID-19 lockdown, Kerala’s Shiji decided to support her struggling family by selling unique papads made from coconut, curry leaf, jackfruit and more.
A sudden heart attack that took away her husband six years ago, left Shiji C Balakrishnan in shambles. The mother of two began toiling hard to make ends meet. But the bitter coronavirus pandemic has given her a second lease on life as she launched her own papad business, which she says, provides her a decent monthly income.
Every Indian is doubtlessly a papad fan and Shiji sells 12 varieties of papad, including coconut, carrot, tomato, coriander, ginger, curry leaf, jackfruit, masala and banana papad.
“During the initial days of lockdown, I had no work for almost one month,” says Shiji, who works at the vehicle registration department of an automobile company in Thrissur. But the company had to close for a month due to lockdown.
“The question of how I will take care of my parents and…