The maid and the lady [Part-1]

I was out of work because two of my employers had shifted to some other cities. I had put up a word with the watchman to let me know if any new families moved into these houses. My boundaries were restricted to the Krishna Colony. I was not allowed to work beyond that area. The other maids wouldn’t approve of that. There was an untold understanding, all of us were poor and one would become an out-caste if one sabotaged the livelihood of other maids.

On one Thursday I was summoned to meet the Sharma Family. Thursday, I figured it was a blessing from Sai Baba. The last couple of tens carefully preserved in the loose end of my saree would have lasted for couple more days, I needed this job. I washed my face and tied my hair neatly and reached the building where the Sharma’s lived. I was apprehensive. It is very difficult to be a maid in these big houses, their strength and money scares me. I feel so vulnerable. Within us maid we all knew it is better to work for families with kids than for bachelors and newly weds. So, when my doorbell was answered by a ten year old relief comforted my tense body. The girl was sweet. In the first few seconds I could guess she was a well mannered child. She spoke to me with respect. “Aunty, please wait. I’ll call mommy.” Rich kids sometimes be very harsh, I now had a positive feeling about the lady of the house. A tall, very fair and gorgeous lady walked out of the kitchen, and called me in. The house was littered with cardboard boxes and wrappers. The mother and child spoke to each other in Hindi. They didn’t belong to this area of the country. “Please sit”

I noted that she gestured towards the mat that covered one corner of the living room. To my surprise she sat down next me,” Will you have tea? I need to drink it before I can do anything. My head is paining. Hands are aching. Why doesn’t the lift work in this building?” I soon forgot all the calculations I was making regarding the salary, the woman spoke to with ease and a familiarity I was starting to like. “No.” She brought the tea anyway and I sipped the hot ginger tea. I noticed my glass was different than hers. But it didn’t matter, we were drinking the same tea and I wasn’t offered a left over.  “I need you to help me with setting up the house. That is first. And, I need you to help me with the dishes, clothes and cleaning the house. But there is one more problem. I am working. So you will have to come at around 6:30 in the morning. Is that fine?” I noted everything she said but she had left out the one piece of information I badly needed to know- how much is she going pay? “I can come at 6:30, I don’t have an issue. I should be able to get done by 8.00. Ma’am, I will accept the standard salary in this colony- 100 for dishes, 150 for clothes and 150 for cleaning.” It was a done deal and I began with washing the tea cups.

One question nagged me, where was her husband? It was none of my business but she seemed too nice a lady to be di-vorzed. Isn’t that what they call it when the man and woman in these big families separate? Months passed and morning tea and breakfast with the lady and her daughter became my routine. The other maids were so jealous, because I got food, hot food and my employer usually sat down and ate with me. On lucky days she would pass on some wonderful clothes that I would fold and keep aside to wear them on special occasions. I was soon hired to come during the evenings as well to help her with the cooking, and we chatted about movies and serials. I was growing more and more attached to her little family and it pained me, that they hid a lot of grief beneath their smiles. 

To be continued....

Cobweb

A cobweb. It is delicately woven. Just strong enough for the builder to trot on it. Strong enough for the builder to get his/her desired. But weak, very weak by its very fabric and it's reason for existence.Straining, swaying suspended in the middle of no where.Torn but re-build as it dips in time. 

Such is our guard. Our mental fort. Our barriers to what lies around us. We carefully weave a list of dos and don'ts sometimes we are taught these for our own safety. Forever we survive in these limits of woven shackles. We believe we are doing fine. We get food. We get some company by people who get caught in our web. Who carefully pass the guards. Make their way into our lives. We define it to be perfect. We extend our boundaries. We expand these webs. But want we fail to realize is we are still restricted. We are bounded. We get restless. We get paranoid and rebuild theses webs if we face a blow. 

Why can't we just suspend in the air? Not know in which direction to move? When every road invites us to an unknown adventure. Why can't we smile at a passing stranger? Why can't we take more chances? Why do we protect ourselves? What are we protecting ourselves from? Why do we weave complexities around us? Why do we live in cobwebs?

For once let it all go! Let words from your heart resonate with the world. Walk. Run. Do something. Forget what will follow. No guard. No web. A journey unrestricted. A path unknown. A pattern undefined. A life of your own.

Bunch of keys!

Have you ever heard the phrase- Think through? Now, re read it. It reveals a lot of wisdom. It silently plants a seed of hope in your mind that if you shall channel your thoughts a solution will come through.  Thoughts are like keys that unlock our mental doors, emotional rooms and  give us access to everything we sense, feel and respond. 

We all make our own keys. Some like the ancient big ones, beautifully carved, too heavy to carry around, but to be carefully guarded.  And, these keys do not fit into many doors(minds). They have selective purposes.But, there might be times when these keys become too big to unlock simple issues. Too pricey to open common locks.

Few others like the spares. They are busy picking up keys of others they have no unique key of their own. They shall forever limit themselves to unlock only those destinations that have already been explored. They lack excitement,adventure and faith in their own key to unlock a unknown life of their dreams.

On the other hand there are people who put in effort and collect a bunch of keys. They unlock every mind, every soul, understand every pain, every gain and every emotion.. well almost. They refuse to accept there is any door, any block hidden and unobtainable. They simply change their keys, make additions and keep opening doors and walk into new destinations. Their key bunch keeps on becoming heavier and more valuable. These are people who unlock the big or small ..any lock with equal ease- with just a turn of the key! 

Just a turn of the key! That is how simple it is. But we all are too busy wasting time thinking about the locks, claiming them to be too big, too rusty and too jammed. We forget and refuse to understand that we need to grow in our minds and build a key that fits well in the lock, we need to stop depending on the keys we have and look for the keys we need. 

Like a single key doesn't open every lock a single way of thinking gives us access to only our own restricted mental room.We need to keep adding new keys and get rid of rusted old ones. And, if we want to unlock more beauties, marvels and treasures of life we should make sure we have a bunch of keys and be flexible enough to use them all at different doors! 

55 Fiction #4: Story of our lives!

Her hands locked in a reassuring embrace. Her thoughts chained to a lost world. Eyes, staring into nothing but still seeing. A warm smile across her lips. Her heart like a marshmallow dipped in chocolate. She looked around and sighed. All good men-married, gay or untraceable. Falling in love- very easy. Finding a guy- never.

Different worlds

It is not a new discovery that time does not move at a constant rate. When we are happy it moves faster. When we feel little low it moves very slow. They say we seem to miss things staring in our face. This is just another thing under this category.

I am amazed that we all look at the same clocks everyday.. at times we do the same things (e.g. attend a class) and still the time moves at different rates for all of us. Imagine the impact of the human brain on how our life unfolds. Were we born with a hypnotic view of what is expected out of us, of what is normal and what is not.  Or do we catch this contagious disease of normal/social/excepted/right-wrong kind of value system as we meet people and keep benchmarking them as a standard?

Why do we judge people, why do we want them to behave in a manner we expect them to? Why do we fail to understand that just like we have different rate for time for each one of us, we have different worlds? It doesn't take a brainwave to decipher this. When we are in a bad mood the slightest of behaviour irritates us to the height that we can bash up people. When we are in a good mood we take the nastiest comments in good humor. For two same people in different mood the world appears different at the same instant. Then, how do we hold conversations with people who may or may not be looking at the world as we do and blame them for being irrational? How do we at times find a connection and few common souls who more or less see similar worlds and call them friends?

It is very funny how we "all" think we know it all.. better than our fellow humans. Each one thinking his/her judgement is correct.

Strange ways of understanding behaviour and people. Just another perception illusion.

Two shows

I happened to attend a live concert. With the little MBA dented head and skewed perception of mine. All I could think about was - How the crowd was being managed?, Checking the systems in the place, getting the performers be there on time, selling an experience. I know. SICK. Thats what I thought about myself too. Thankfully this thought process shifted to an altogether different channel when my friend made very impressive negotiations with the police officers and we reached the green room. I was soaking in every possible sensory signal in that room. That was the closest I ever got to dance and art literally and figuratively.Colourful costumes,bright confident people, some strange energy..  Everything was interesting. It was all new. 


The evening was magical. Amazing dance compositions by Ms. Nirupama and Mr. Rajendra and their team took us to another world altogether. One easily forgot the muddy puddles beneath one's feet. Forgot the presence of some 5000+ odd people in the surrounding. It was dance, music, colour and you. Thats it. The moment froze. It couldn't get any better. In the later half of the evening we witnessed the power house called Sonu Nigam. Brilliant energy . How he engrossed the entire crowd. We clapped and rooted for more as he sang. The energy of the crowd was contagious. 


There was another show LIVE on our campus. It was also equally magical. 5 people fought it out and won the opportunity to work in a reputed organization. Here also we had these celebrities. They walked out victorious and drove the crowd into frenzy with a shared happiness. This too transported us to different worlds. A world of dreams for some, a world of anxiety for some. A state of abeyance for a few. But all happy in a strange manner. At times you miss your beats.. you fall out of sync... it is just not your tune. While you find your rhythm... it is wiser to dance to the victory of others on your way to yours. That energy shall take you further.