Help is pouring in for a woman techie forced to sell vegetables to make both ends meet after losing her job in a multinational company due to the nationwide lockdown enforced in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has offered a job to Unadadi Sharada while the Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) has also come forward to help after learning about her story.
“My official met her. The interview is done. Job letter already sent,” tweeted Sonu Sood in response after a Twitter user drew his attention to her plight.
Sharada said she was happy to receive the call from Sonu Sood. She did not reveal the nature of the job offered but said she would take a call after consulting her family members.
Sonu Sood has been helping hundreds of people in distress, especially the stuck migrant workers, and even helping provide employment to those rendered jobless.
The 26-year-old woman has been selling vegetables in Srinagar Colony in Hyderabad for the last few days.
Unadadi Sharada, who was employed in an American information technology services company before she lost her job, said she did not believe in “false prestige” and hence started selling vegetables to support her family.
Her day starts at 4 am as she goes to the wholesale market to buy vegetables which she ferries to her roadside shop for sale. She feels that there is no shame in what she is doing.
After all, she pointed out, it was by selling vegetables that her parents gave her and three other siblings the best of education. Venkatesh and Saramma, who had migrated to Hyderabad from Warangal district over two decades ago, are proud of their daughter.
The couple sold vegetables and worked as laborers to make a living and educate all their children — three daughters and a son.
Their eldest daughter is an Assistant Professor at a private engineering college. Sharada is their second daughter, who after her B. Tech in Computer Sciences got a job in a Gurugram company in 2016 but came back to Hyderabad in 2018 to join another firm.
After the lockdown began, the company informed her that they will not be able to pay even half of her salary. Her parents were sad over the turn of events but she decided not to sit at home and wait.
“It did not take long for me to decide what I should do in this situation. I decided to support myself and the family by selling vegetables,” she said.
Sharada’s younger sister works in the administrative section of a hospital while her brother is also into selling vegetables.
TITA, an industry body of software professionals, has come forward to help. TITA Global President Sundeep Kumar Mukthala will meet her soon with a job proposal.
She has also received job offers from other quarters, including start-ups. “I have not yet made up my mind. I will discuss with the family members and take up a job which I find most suitable,” said Sharada.
