Nushrratt Bharuccha drank water to curb hunger when family faced financial crisis, survived on Rs 8 per day: ‘Nobody knew I was hungry’

Talking about how the responsibilities of her parents keep her on her toes, she explained that she is always “scared”. “I am scared because my father is close to 70, my mom is 62 and my grandmother is 92 and they are all on me. I need to have the backup, the pool of money required when, god forbid, something happens.”

However, this financial discipline isn’t something new for Nushrratt. Growing up she had seen her parents face a financial crisis and had herself gone through a tough time. Explaining why she has always been conscious of spending money, she said, “I have made my world small. When I would travel to Jai Hind College from Juhu…my dad was facing financial difficulty at that time, after he got cheated in his business. So, I was conscious of not spending his money. 90 percent of my college life, I went five years to that college, I used to only spend Rs 8 per day and that was spent on travel. I would take the train and then the bus to college, attend classes, and would come back home.”

She added, “The only thing in Jai Hindi college which was free was water so whenever I would feel hungry, I would drink water. And it wasn’t that my father wouldn’t give me money but it was my consciousness.”

Nushrratt also recalled that once during an outing with friends, while everyone ordered food, she stopped herself from doing that to save money. “Nobody knew that I was hungry, I only had water there also. But I told myself that there will be a day when I would live life without seeing the price tag,” she said.