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“I make jewellery, stitch traditional wedding outfits and also do bridal makeup”

When a wedding is announced in the village of Bhogamur Gaon or even surrounding villages of Kutuha Panchayat in Assam’s Dibrugarh district, there is a very good chance that the bride would get her traditional attire tailored and embroidered by Gayatree Borah (28). On D-Day you might also encounter Gayatree silently doing the bridal makeup – silently, because besides being a certified beautician she is also speech and hearing impaired.
 
Gayatree’s numerous talents were not easily acquired; her early years from birth and through childhood were ridden with problems. She is the firstborn of Rina Hazarika (50) and Jivon (pronounced Jibon) Borah (57) who live in Bhogamur Gaon. Jibon, besides cultivating paddy, is also a contract worker in the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL). He recalls the day he and Rina welcomed their first child into the world – or children, rather, for Rina had twin girls. But just four days after the delivery, one of the twins died. Gayatree was the survivor.
 
“Raising Gayatree was very challenging,” Jibon says. Rina caught jaundice when the baby was four months old, so she stopped breastfeeding her and gave her powdered milk. Her overall growth remained weak and she was slow to take her first steps. She finally started toddling but then the couple noticed she wouldn’t respond when they called out to her. When she didn’t speak even by age four her parents consulted an ENT specialist who diagnosed her with deafness. She was in her twenties when she got her disability card after medical tests confirmed she had 93 per cent speech and hearing impairment.
 
Jibon made a wise decision: he hunted for a good Deaf school. When Gayatree was six years old he enrolled her in the Government Bhauri Devi Sarawgi Deaf & Dumb School in Guwahati, 450 km away, where his brother lived. Anxious whether she could cope with hostel life, Jibon rented a house nearby so he could keep a watchful eye over her. It was only after the hostel matron assured him she was managing fine on her own that he returned home.
 
However, barely three or four months later, Gayatree had just moved from Standard 1 to Standard 2 when she fell seriously ill due to a tapeworm infection and lost consciousness. The hostel matron admitted her to hospital, and Jibon’s brother rushed to her assistance. Jibon reached Guwahati the following day. He didn’t want to take any chances, so after her treatment he decided to bring her back home. He admitted Gayatree to a local Assamese-medium school. However, after she reached Standard 7 and had attained puberty, she was reluctant to go to school because, she said, the other children were teasing her, so she discontinued her studies.
 
Jibon then took a second wise decision, one that dramatically transformed the trajectory of Gayatree’s life. Since she was artistic by nature, he encouraged her to learn a raft of creative skills. “After she quit school I decided to provide her with skill-based training through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,” Jibon narrates. “She received training in jute craft at Mrinaljyoti Rehabilitation Centre, Duliajan, and jewellery-making training in Dibrugarh. She also learned drawing along with my younger daughter Manisha under the guidance of an art teacher who came home. She has participated in and won art competitions for children with disabilities in Dibrugarh on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. She was also invited to participate in competitions at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra in Guwahati.” There was more to come! Gayatree stayed at her youngest uncle’s house in Dibrugarh and took a three-month tailoring course, followed by a two-month course in beauty-treatment and makeup.
 
Equipped with this formidable array of skills, today Gayatree is self-sufficient and manages her own expenses. “She receives regular tailoring orders and her wedding outfits are highly appreciated,” says the proud father. “My plan is to open a small shop or showroom in the village where her tailored clothes, handmade jewellery, and other items such as gift articles and stationery can be displayed and sold.”
 
Jibon cites just one niggling issue – Gayatree’s ageing sewing machine, which breaks down frequently. “There have been many occasions when customers have returned home disappointed because I would have taken the machine to Dibrugarh for repairs,” says Jibon. “If some kind individual would provide a modern sewing machine that would greatly help her achieve full independence.”
 
The couple’s other two children are well settled: Sanjib, who works in the private sector, lives with his family in Guwahati, while Manisha is married and lives in Bhogamur Gaon. They are now hunting for a suitable match for Gayatree. When this accomplished young woman’s marriage is fixed, we wonder whether she herself would design and stitch her own bridal outfit!