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Why is *Collector Madam* not wearing *makeup* ...?

Malappuram District Collector *Ms Rani Soyamoi* interacts with college students.

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She wore no jewelry other than a wristwatch.

What surprised most of the students was that she did not even use *face powder*.

The speech is in English. She spoke for only a minute or two, but her words were full of determination.

The children then asked the collector some questions.

Q: What's your name?

My name is Rani, Soyamoi is my family name. I am a native of *Jharkhand*.

Anything else to ask ?.

A slender girl stood up from the audience.

Ask, child.

"Madame, why don't you use any makeup?"

The collector's face suddenly turned pale. Sweat broke out on her thin forehead. The smile on her face faded. The audience suddenly became silent.

She opened the water bottle on the table and drank a little. Then she gestured, slowly, to the student to sit. Then she began to speak, slowly.

You have asked a troubling question. It is something that can never be answered in a single word. I have to tell you my life story in answer. Let me know if you are willing to set aside your precious ten minutes for my story.

Ready ...

I was born in a tribal area of Jharkhand. The Collector paused and looked at the audience.

I was born in a small hut in the tribal area of *Koderma* district, full of "Mica" mines.

My father and mother were miners. I had two elder brothers and a younger sister. We lived in a small hut that leaked when it rained.

My parents worked in the mines for meager wages because they could not find another job. It was a very messy job.

When I was four years old, my father, mother and two brothers were bedridden with various ailments.

Little did they know at the time that the disease was caused by inhaling the deadly mica dust in the mines.

When I was five, my brothers died of an illness.

With a small sigh the Collector stopped talking and wiped her eyes with her handkerchief.

Most days our diet consisted of *plain water and one or two rotis*. Both my brothers left this world due to acute illness and starvation. In my village, forget a doctor there was no school. Can you imagine a village without a school, a hospital or even a toilet, without electricity? .

One day my father grabbed

my starved, skin and bones hand and walked me to a big mine covered with tin sheets.

It was a mica mine that had gained notoriety over time.

It was an ancient mine that was dug up and dug up, extending seemingly endlessly into the underworld. My job was to crawl through the tiny caves at the bottom and collect mica ores. It was only possible for children under the age of ten.

For the first time in my life, I ate a full stomach of rotis. But that day I vomited.

At the time I should be in first class, I was collecting mica in dark rooms where I was breathing *poisonous dust*.

It was not uncommon for unfortunate children to die in occasional *landslides*. And occasionally some with *fatal diseases*

After working eight hours a day, you could earn at least enough for a one time meal. I had become thinner and dehydrated because of hunger and inhalation of poisonous gases, every day.

A year later my sister also started going to work in the mine. As soon as they were a little better, it came to a point that my father, mother, sister and I worked together and we could live without hunger.

But fate was beginning to haunt us in another form. One day when I was not going to work due to high fever, it suddenly rained. Hundreds of people died when the mine collapsed on the workers at the base of the mine. Among them were my father, mother and sister.

Tears began to flow through both eyes of Rani. Everyone in the audience forgot to even breathe. The eyes of many were filled with tears.

You have to remember that I was only six years old.

Eventually I arrived at the Government Agati Mandir. There I was educated. I had learned my first alphabets from my village. Finally here is the collector in front of you.

You may be wondering what the connection is between this and the fact that I do not use makeup.

She continued, glancing through the audience.

It was during my education that I realized that the whole mica I had collected while crawling through the darkness those days was being used on makeup products.

Mica is the first type of pearlescent silicate mineral.

Among the mineral make-ups offered by many big cosmetic companies, the brightest color for your skin is from the multi-colored mica that 20,000 young children risk their lives to mine.

The softness of the rose spreads on your cheeks with their charred dreams, their shattered lives and their flesh and blood crushed among the rocks.

Millions of dollars worth of mica are still used, picked up baby hands from mines. To enhance our beauty.

Now you tell me.

How do I apply makeup on my face ? How can I eat on a full stomach in memory of my brothers who died of starvation? How can I wear expensive silk dresses in the memory of my mother who never even dreamed of torn clothes ?.

The whole audience stood up unknowingly as Rani walked away, with a small smile on her lips,without wiping the tears in her eyes, her head held high.

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(The highest quality mica is still mined in Jharkhand. More than 20,000 young children work there without going to school. They wither away, some in the landslides and some by disease.)

Makeup