From a night split open by fire,
Three small stars fell into her hands.

She kept them, taught them to shine in their own sky.

She, the quiet monsoon
Gathering broken rivers into the sea.

EdexLive honours Nibedita Lenka, Devi of Upliftment.

“Maa” to dreams that might have been lost,
Keeper of doors that never close.

—

Some women inherit a family; some create one out of fragments the world has left behind. For Nibedita Lenka, affectionately known as Yashoda Maa, the journey began with a single act of shelter. Years ago, when news of three children orphaned by a gas explosion reached her, she took them into her care. What began as an emergency became a calling, and then, eventually, a movement.

Today, through the Yashoda Maa Foundation she founded, Nibedita has nurtured dozens of children across Odisha. She has provided what every parent hopes to: food, education, encouragement, and, above all, continuity. For her, parenting is not defined by bloodlines but by the steady rhythm of showing up; day after day, lesson after lesson, until the child believes in their own worth.

Under her leadership, the foundation also runs Barnabodha Pathashala centres in slum areas, bringing basic literacy to those long shut out of classrooms. She has organised health camps, mobilised women’s groups, and worked on skills training. In each, her focus has been the same: to take lives interrupted by loss or circumstance and restore them to their natural flow.

Recognition has followed, though it has never been her aim. She has been honoured with awards including the Kalakruti Samman and the Adarsha Nari Award, and most recently, the Devi Award by The New Indian Express. Yet Nibedita is least likely to dwell on such moments. For her, the applause lies in the quiet transformation of a child who once had no schoolbag now studying for exams, or a young woman once resigned to labour now finding skill and voice.

To call her Yashoda Maa is more than affection; it is accuracy. In mythology, Yashoda raised Krishna though he came from another’s womb. In Odisha, Nibedita Lenka has done much the same — raising children into futures they might never have touched had she not intervened. Her story is one of care sharpened by conviction. Motherhood, in her life, is no role assigned at birth but a choice lived each day.