Mrs Sampathia Diptee Ramcharitar - a rebel and a visionary
Starting with selling bunches of bananas and oranges from her father's farm to passers-by in front of her house, she moved on to become a successful retailer operating a shopping center opposite the Convent in Couva. Over the next forty years, she raised a family of seven children, four boys, and three girls. She went on to help her four sons to set up their own homes and saved enough money for herself to build a three-story 10,000 sft commercial/residential building of her own
Before she could move into the building, she made the transition unexpectedly, leaving a legacy of entrepreneurship for the next generation to emulate
She was well respected in the community and was affectionately called "Molly-ki-Ma" (meaning Molly's mother in the Hindi language) with reference to her ever magnetic business associate and first born child. Molly-ki-Ma was a firm believer in the big picture about female education.
Sampath was a young bride married to the first born in a large traditional family of seven boys and seven girls during the second world war and soon had a daughter. When her daughter was six years old, Sampath rebelled against playing the traditional role of a stay-at-home daughter-in-law and moved out with her husband, taking the daughter and a baby son with her. she wanted a better future for herself and her budding family.
With a grade 5 elementary school education and a vision for her future, she had the discipline, the determination, and the entrepreneurial skills in business to succeed in life on her own.
Sampath believed in higher education for her children and financially supported them if they wanted to pursue university studies. Two sons and two daughters successfully completed their undergraduate studies, while the eldest daughter pursued her post-graduate education at the university.
Sampath believed in charitable work by giving back to the community in which she lived. In 1984, she did a 14 day Ramayan Yag at the Ramleela Grounds distributing free food to a thousand people per night after a reading from Ramayan.
