A year after graduating in Painting from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Punam Rai was married to a budding engineer (later found to be just an intermediate pass) in Patna.
She was turned into a maidservant by her dowry greedy husband and in-laws. She was tortured daily for dowry, despite her father having fulfilled all their demands. After she gave birth to a girl child in November 1997, she was subjected to even more torture by husband and in-laws.
Then the fateful incident took place. On February 3, 1997, Punam was pushed down the third floor of a building by her husband and in-laws. She suffered severe spine fracture. Punam was confined to bed for 17 years with near-total paralysis. Doctors had given up hope that she would ever be able to stand on her feet.
But her determination to prove the doctors wrong and make her father proud just like her brothers, helped her to finally stand on her own with artificial support in 2014.
The reactivation of Punam’s life, happened after her father’s death in 2014. She started the BR Foundation in his memory in Varanasi, beginning with her return to the world of colours (painting).
Her quest to working on her own to shape the lives of others started with her own daughter, nieces and nephews, but later started encompassing other kids from all parts of Varanasi, particularly the rural areas. She began by teaching painting to boys and girls and organised their exhibitions. She connected with all; from poor children wishing to become painters to housewives cherishing to plunge into a riot of colours to the big names of the art.
Her journey of inspiring to change lives of others wasn’t just confined to painting through exhibitions in various cities of India. It spread its wings into taekwondo, with the help of national level players. Since 2016, her Foundation trained over 3,000 girls, boys and women in Taekwondo. From them, 20 are state and national level players, while three girls, all from nondescript villages in Varanasi’s Babatpur area — won two gold and a bronze a few months ago at an international tourney in Australia.
In 2017, Punam spent 17 days painting 648 faces (of a girl’s journey from birth to death) on a single canvas, ‘Phases of Faces’.
Photo: Punam Rai standing in front of her work, ‘Phases of Faces’…….
