The family has three members who need wheelchairs. Together, they have been peddling tissues and knick knacks for three years.
But things were not this hard before. Single mother Gyatsri Vengatraman, 30, had always wanted to be a lawyer, given her oratory skills and her recognition as Sasterawati Negeri Selangor when she was 13.
But her ambition to study law did not materialise because she was married off to an Indian national when she was 18.
She moved from Sepang to Penang in 2007 because her husband had a job here. The marriage was not a happy one and they split up eight years later. The man returned to India in 2015, leaving her to fend for her three children and ailing father.
Gyatsri’s youngest son, six-year-old Sachin Varma, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and injuries to the backbone in 2016 as a result of alleged abuse by a nanny. He is unable to walk and is permanently in a wheelchair.
Gyatsri was forced to quit her job as a security guard at Penang Hospital to care for her son. But she became active in Rela part-time and took odd jobs that came by.
In 2018, her house in Puncak Erskine caught fire and, rushing to save her children, she fell and broke her knee and several leg bones. This left her needing a wheelchair.
Years before that, her father, Vengatraman Padmanathan, had had both his legs amputated below the knees due to an accident. He, too, is in a wheelchair.
Gyatsri and her three children, along with her father, had to find some means of survival.
They started selling tissues and knick knacks outside a bank at Macallum Street Ghaut after assemblyman Jason Ong got them a government flat nearby, for which they paid a monthly rent of RM172.
While Gyatsri and her father sold their wares at the five-foot way, her two able-bodied children, Sanggit Varma, 12, and Sasmita Varma, 10, babysat their brother.
They sold the tissues for 50 sen to RM1 a pack, depending on the type.
She then used her savings to set up an Indian food stall at a Chinese restaurant. Takeaways were brisk then, but it was short-lived due to a rise in rent and also a drop in the footfall rate because of the various MCOs.
With only welfare aid and no earnings, they could not afford rent on the house. Fortunately, a kind man who heard about their plight put them up at one of his apartments in Relau for free.
Gyatsri and her family then started selling tissues outside the Bukit Jambul Complex not far away from their new apartment. The family takes a RapidPenang bus every morning to the complex.
“We used to make RM30 to RM40 a day selling tissues,” she said. “We made a bit more when we were selling food, which was more than okay for us. I am happy that I was making a living. But when the lockdown came, no one was buying anything.”
A few strangers who saw the family selling tissues at a deserted roadside at the height of the current MCO alerted the Penang Kini Facebook page, which attracted the attention of Batu Uban assemblyman Kumaresan Aramugam.
Kumaresan said he would help her get extra welfare aid. At present, she receives RM770 in welfare aid while her father receives RM470 from the Social Security Organisation as he lost his legs in an accident travelling home from work.
Kumaresan gave the family immediate aid in cash and food items and urged them to stay home due to the rise in Covid-19 cases.
Gyatsri said she was thankful for the assistance and hoped someone could help her start a cloud kitchen. She could sell home-cooked food, she said.
She also hopes someone can help care for her youngest child and her father, who has a heart ailment.
She said she needed to fix her knee so she could walk again. It had been made worse, she said, by a botched surgery. The government hospital has put her on a wait list.
“When things get better, I really want to study law,” she told FMT. “I have a feeling I will be a good lawyer someday.”
Readers wishing to help Gyatsri can send a WhatsApp message to FMT’s Helpline at 019-3899839. Please don’t make phone calls.