Very excited to announce that, after an eight-year labor of love and three trips to India, we’ve started to publish Maheswari’s Story: A Memoir on Substack. Maheswari Sateesh is one of the most remarkable people I know, with one of the most astounding life stories I’ve ever heard.

Born around 1975 in rural South India (exact date unknown), Maheswari was raised in crushing poverty by a father with leprosy and married off at age 14 to her uncle as a second wife. Her life in a Chennai slum was marked by constant physical and sexual violence, and the progressive loss of her vision. Through her ability to forge friendships over cultural, class, and language barriers, and with her intelligence and unconquered spirit, she begins against all odds to change her circumstances.

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