It is just the beginning of the year, but M. Manju Laxmi already feels anxious. In four months or so, she will be back to her old routine: stuffing the wide chinks under her weathered closed doors and windows with her old saris.

Laxmi, 42, along with her three children, her husband Nagaraju and his extended family, lives in Malyam village. Despite being one of the larger landholders with a 3.5 hectare-farmland, her family has been dogged by illness and debt even before she came here as a bride...
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