From pind to US via Walmart

AMRITSAR: Women in the sleepy hamlet of Nangal Pannuan, 18 km from here, have lived a predictable life — early marriage, bearing children, serving their families and little education. Bachhitter Singh’s family was no different. He married off three of his daughters soon after high school. The youngest, Amandeep Kaur, would have met the same fate but her story took a different turn.

Unlike her sisters and most girls in her village, Amandeep, 23, goes to work clad in jeans and Tees. She works with the American retail giant, Bharti Walmart here. And, while her ilk wouldn’t dare dream of the US, Amandeep is all set to fly there, having won a company-sponsored trip after wining an internal dance competition. She joined the multinational after passing out of the Bharti Walmart Training Centre here, instituted in collaboration with the Punjab government. Walmart opened its first outlet in India in the holy city of Amritsar in May last year. For Amandeep, it was a whole new world. When she joined the store, she was wide-eyed.

“I had no idea food could be kept frozen before I came here,” says Amandeep, who is now managing the frozen food at the store. And, as US beckons, her aspirations are soaring. “I want to eke out a career in retail,” she says, and informs that she has already enrolled for an MBA degree from Indira Gandhi National Open University. Amandeep isn’t alone. Her neighbour, Kuldeep Kaur, whose father drives an auto-rickshaw in Majithia, manages the front desk at the store. And, Kuldeep is studying hard to be a graduate. “It was a totally new world for me, so very different from my village and the atmosphere I grew up in,” says Kuldeep