ABSTRACT
This chapter comprises life stories where participants enumerated how they lost momentum towards a potentially more fulfilling future as they could not garner hope. These participants shared experiences indicating traces of recovery and empowerment. However, the absence of hope shunted their upstream journey after a point. For “Ayesha,” “Karunai,” and “Shankar,” their advanced age, lack of purpose, and need to become financially self-sufficient were the critical constraints that rendered their hope for a future appear bleak. On the other hand, for “Bijon” and “Sujaya,” no significant familial or social relation could facilitate the developing or nurturing of hope towards a meaningful future.
