She cuts an impressive figure as she opens the car door for you – pacing with confidence in crisp uniform and a broad smile fixed on her lips. After exchanging pleasantries, Sunita takes behind the wheels, self-assured about manoeuvring the unruly Delhi traffic. She talks little, but smiles a lot. When drawn into a conversation, she fills you in about the weather and the city, while you continue to marvel at her driving skills. Questions about her life elicit a calculated response, be it on her children or where she lives.
It takes a while before she confides in you to share her journey from a barely educated girl who used to iron clothes to the only woman chauffeur at The Leela Ambience Gurugram, who now drives an Audi A8 L – a luxury sedan worth few crores. Notably, the hotel is among the rare ones in the national capital to break the glass ceiling and bring a woman on board to drive its fleet of expensive cars.
A rocky road
Sunita, who lives in Jaipur, got married at a young age of 14. By 17, she was a mother. “My husband was addicted to alcohol and used to abuse me physically. The marriage was rife with regular beatings and unspeakable horrors, not just from him but from my in-laws as well. I lost my first born to this torture, but I carried on with the relationship, hoping things will improve,” says the 42-year-old, her tone not betraying any emotion. When her husband started venting his anger on their two young daughters, she decided to move out and live with her parents.
“He started harassing me and my parents, coercing me to come back. Once, he attacked my mother in a fit of rage and that was the final straw. I resolved not to go back to that dungeon,” she recounts. “It wasn’t an easy decision but my parents came to my support. They helped me deal with the stigma of ladki ghar vaapis aa gayi [girl has come back to live with her parents after a marital discord],” says Sunita, who has been estranged from her husband for the past 18 years.
The drive to make ends meet
Not educated enough, she started ironing clothes to sustain herself and her daughters. As the expenses increased, she took up a job in an export house where she cut threads from finished clothes. “The work did not pay much and I knew I had to be more gainfully employed to give better life and good education to my girls. I’d been keen to learn driving since my younger days, and thought why not do it professionally,” Sunita says, as she recalls the jibes she was subjected to when she approached her cousins to teach her driving.
Finally, it was a co-passenger she’d meet everyday in the local bus, who introduced her to Azad Foundation – a local NGO that gives vocational training to women like her, in 2014. The year-long programme not only developed her driving skills, but also groomed her in social etiquettes, speaking English, first aid and self defence. She drove a taxi given by the foundation for three years before joining the hotel in 2017. “I came to know about a vacancy here and got lucky.
It’s a male bastion but I am touched by the way my colleagues, seniors and the organisation has come to support me. My gender is not a roadblock.” During the struggle, she says, her daughters now grown up, were her emotional anchors. “Society does not let you be if you are a single mother and an estranged wife. I took everything in my stride and fought on relentlessly. This job is befitting reply to all those who think women need men to survive and their identity depends to them. We make all the difference in the world,” she signs off.