Wished to become police officer, content with my conductor job: 27-yo widowed mother

Mangaluru: Anita, a native of the Belagavi district, has been working as a bus conductor here and has a remarkable story to tell.

Anita had desired to become a police officer since her childhood. However, misfortune struck her thrice.

Her father died when she was a child and so she was married off soon. Later, her husband died in an accident while their daughter was three years old.

Due to all of these life events, she never had a proper opportunity for education but completed her PUC after the birth of her daughter.

However, as she had a Cesarean, she became ineligible for the police service.

She arrived in Kundapura in search of employment and started working as a bus conductor in a private bus service issuing tickets in buses that operated on the Kundapur-Kollur, Udupi-Kollur and Udupi-Mangaluru routes.

Last year due to the pandemic-induced lockdown she returned home and worked as a security guard.

After the lockdown was lifted she came to Mangaluru and started working as a conductor again on a Mangaluru-Karkala bus.

After her mother’s death recently, she, her daughter and her brother, who completed his PUC, are being taken care of by her aunt and uncle.

“I have been working as a bus conductor for a total of 6 years. A lot of people in Udupi, Kundapura, Mangaluru and Karkala instilled confidence in me. Working as a bus conductor has brought me comfort. I couldn’t become a police officer but I wish to see my daughter become one,” Anita said.