Kozhikode: Diana Lisy need not have to think twice to give the maximum money she can towards the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF). On Sunday, she reached the office of local MLA and excise minister T.P. Ramakrishnan in Perambra and handed over a cheque of Rs 10,000.
The 41-year old cobbler and philanthropist has a tumultuous story which set off in far off Rajasthan. She had withstood many ordeals in life, and the most laudable is she always has a concern for others amid her umpteen problems for survival.
She is originally Shivani Patel from Rajasthan who reached here 27 years back along with her father due to the cruelty of her maternal uncles.
She was born in an affluent family in Jaipur, but the tiff over property led to the murder of her mother by her uncles.
They then poured acid on her face and along with her hapless father she fled there on the first train.
The father and daughter reached Koyilandy and survived by doing odd jobs. One day, the father disappeared, and she was taken care of by Good Samaritans. Ms Lisy moved to Kuttiadi, worked as a sweeper and later learned the art of mending sandals and making plastic flowers. She ekes out a living as a cobbler in Perambra for the last 22 years and is the state committee member of Street Labourers Union.
“I saw many pathetic lives in front of me which made me spend a portion of the earnings for their welfare. This gesture for the flood-hit people was also part of it,” she said.
Though she bought a five-cent plot and a house in Perambra, it was given freely to a low-income family later.
She became an active volunteer at Daya palliative clinic in Perambra and used to provide textbooks and bags to students of Government Welfare L.P. School each year.
