I’ve migrated here from India, from Gujarat. I belong to the Chikhli area. Chikhli, Madra – I’m from these villages. I came here in 1980. For the first 4 or 5 years, I did not work here. But when I started, I worked by peeling onions.

It was my first time working in a factory. I started out from there. Tears used to stream down our cheeks while returning from the factory. And we just hated sitting in the bus. Because we’d be smelling of onions. And despite bathing and washing our hair, the smell never went away completely.

And we just couldn’t sit. So, we used to return from work standing. And the onion count kept pounding in my head. One, two, three, one, two, three. And it happened even at night while I slept. One, two, three, four, five, six. All throughout the night.

We peeled onion for the pickle. So, we were supposed to count them. Then they weighed our counted onions. And we used to do piecework. They paid us based on that.

I worked like that for a few years. Then I worked at the toys factory. Then in a machine factory. Then I worked at a place where they made us wash Range Rover overhauls. I’ve worked on so many different things, some I don’t even recall at the moment. Eventually we bought a shop.

I worked at the shop for 28 years. Now I’m retired. During that time, I developed a kidney problem. It was epilepsy. Kidney problem. High blood pressure. So, yes, it was a problem. Then I performed self-dialysis for five years.

I used to do home-dialysis. It ran for 9 hours and required 12 litres of water. If it was in the hospital, they used blood and it was done in four hours. But I preferred to do it at home because I had to give time to the shop as well, so I couldn’t take out the time to visit the hospital. So, the setup at home was similar to that in the hospital. Everything was supposed to be clear and clean. This is how I did it. At the time, I could only drink 1.5 ml of water in an entire day – that is, a 24-hour cycle. Also, I had to limit my salt intake and some other things. Water consumption had to be kept low. Now I’ve gotten a new kidney and ever since I’m able to drink a lot more water.

At the time, someone told me to enquire about the kidney, and that if I did not ask, I’d get it very late. So, I went to the office, knocked on the door and asked when I’d be getting a kidney. After a month, I was on my dialysis and received a call informing me that I had received a kidney, and that I must come to the hospital.

I was in the middle of my dialysis. And every time I started the procedure, I had to check my blood pressure in the morning and evening and adjust my dressing, etc.

I got a new kidney. It’s been ten years now. At the time we had a shop and a house. We sold it and bought this new house – the only one we have, and now we’re retired.