Sindhutai Sapkale who spent years begging, now runs 3 shelters for kids

Rarely does a woman who has seen the worst that life can offer, live to see a film made on her experiences. But then Sindhutai Sapkale or Mai as this 55-year-old is called, is no ordinary woman.
“This is a dream. I once wanted to kill myself, but I fortunately realised that my life was important,” says mai breaking into a smile.

Mai’s life is actually straight out of some fiction book that one reads as a short story. Born in a poor household, she studied till Std IV before she was married off. She says poverty made her do things that she never wants to remember.

“I was drowning in unhappiness, sadness and poverty. The darkness lasted many years. It is dehumanising to tell you that I had to beg and plead for alms in my pallu,” says Mai.

It has been one long journey for Sindhutai who was thrown out by her husband at the age of 21 to fend for herself and her two toddlers. She began begging on the Manmad-Aurangabad-Nanded railway line and singing on trains. Poetry was her anchor in life and although uneducated, she can put Marathi literates to shame by chanting GD Madgulkar and Suresh Bhatt’s poems by heart.

Her first tryst with fame came when she barged into Doordarshan’s studios and chanted Bhatt’s poems.

“Now, lakhs of viewers watch me on different channels and television programmes,” Mai says.

Today, Mai runs three ashrams for abandoned children in and around Pune.

During one of her journey begging on the trains, Mai came across numerous abandoned adivasi children, whom she decided to look after. Deepak Gaikwad, the first child she took under her wing in the 1980s is now helping her full time.

“Gandhari had 100 sons in Mahabharat, I have beaten her. I’ve 1,042 children and 207 sons-in-law to whom I have paid no dowry. My children are doctors, studied management, engineering and are helping me run my mission,” says Mai.

The producers Bindiya and Sachin Khanolkar of Siddhivinayak Cinevisionsay Mai’s story moved them into making a film. “We felt this was a story that really needed to be told . It’s touching to see that her kids add Sindhutai Sapkale to their maiden names.”