Alive For Go-Ahead Men : A Delhi Press Magazine

It was drizzling heavily, one morning. After my husband and children had left for their respective jobs, I sat sipping my coffee and watching the raindrops gently dropping down the window-panes. The leaves of the trees surrounding my verandah looked clean and green, decorated with the raindrops, here and there. How blessed I was, l thought. I had the time to observe and celebrate nature.

Just as I was feasting on nature’s beauty, I heard the sound of my gate opening. An old woman entered my verandah and sat down — as if she too wanted to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

When I offered her coffee, she refused. She told me that she had come to ask if I needed a servant to work in my house. Since mine had given me a one-month notice, I really needed one. She wanted to bid goodbye to Tumkur and go back to her village.

“Thank God, I am getting a replacement! What a blessing,” I thought. Somehow, she really impressed me at the very first sight. She proved to be a very clean and honest. Sun or shower, she would be at my house right on time. Soon, I took a great liking to her.

One day, she felt like telling me all about her life. Her story was a moving one, indeed... Her name was Kamala and she had 3 sisters and one brother. She was born in a village called Gubbi, in Karnataka. Her mother worked in a house on a monthly pay of 400 rupees. Her father was an electrician; he was very skilled but very lazy.

He would work on a daily-wage basis. But then, he hardly went for work. Even if he decided to work for a day, now and then, he was happy to spend all his earnings on his country liquor. If he did not go to work, he would beat up his wife and snatch the money, for which she slogged 5 hours, every day of the month, to feed her children.

So, all that these children saw at home was a drunkard father and violence. There was starvation by day and by night for them. The children would helplessly see their mother’s struggle. Kamala would wonder whether there was a solution to all these problems and decided that she would, one day, save her family.

One fine morning, she got out of bed, ran out of the house and stared at the sun, as if gathering enough strength from it rays. She made up her mind to search for a way to solve the problem.

Kamala was 13 years old on that day. She told her mother that she would leave the village and go to a town called Tumkur and see what she could do to help in bringing up her brother and sisters.

The mother tried to persuade her not to leave them. She tried to convince Kamala that her father would, one day, change his ways. But Kamala would have none of these as she was fed up of the violence and starvation at home. Every day was a dull and sad day for her. The child in her was hurt deeply.

She walked and walked till her legs ached. She finally reached the bus-stand at Gubbi. The bus was crowded and she had to stand throughout the journey but she managed not to fall even though her legs ached badly. The bus fare was Rs 10, and that was all the money she had.

When she landed in Tumkur, she was tired and hungry. She had no money to buy food. She lived for a week on the alms given to her by the passengers at the busstop. Wondering whether she had done the right thing in coming to Tumkur, she tried different means to earn her livelihood.

She was willing to work as a maidservant in people’s houses, but they would ask her where she came from and where she had worked before. She had no home in Tumkur and she had no previous work-experience to give them as reference. She wondered whether she would ever get a job.

Then an idea struck her. Since there were many shops near the bus-stand, she requested the shopkeepers to allow her to clean their shops on a daily basis. She went about from shop to shop, begging the owners to allow her to work for them. Some of them agreed; some didn’t. She took up the job of cleaning shops during the day and with the money she was paid she would buy bread and live on it for the whole day.

She worked very sincerely and honestly, so most of the shopkeepers were very kind to her. She used to sleep on the pavements, along with other poor people, during the night. Like this, she saw many sunny and unbearably hot days. In winter, the nights were very cold and she had no blanket to cover her thin body. The body suffered but the mind was strong and determined. She was not going to give up.

There was no message from her people, all this while, as they knew not where she was. But that did not bother her, as she knew that, one day, she would be better off and bring them to Tumkur. Every night, she would say a silent prayer as she had immense faith in God and in her efforts. She believed in her strength.

Meanwhile, in Gubbi, her mother continued to go through her tough days. She mother had lost all hopes; all the dark clouds in her life never seemed to have any silver lining. Same toil during the day and same starvation for her and her children and same beating from her husband. In addition, this there was no news about her eldest daughter.

In Tumkur, Kamala concentrated on her work and, slowly but steadily, she was saving up some money for her family. One morning, she went to work as usual. She started her day’s work. A shop-owner had left Rs 20,000 in cash, on the table and rushed out of the shop on some urgent work.

After cleaning the floor, little Kamala noticed the money. She kept it safely and then gave the whole amount to the shopkeeper, when he returned. The shopkeeper, who thought that he had lost the money on his way to the bank, decided that he would reward the girl by giving her the job of a servant in his house. She worked in his house for 2 years and, since her food and clothing was taken care of by the shopkeeper and his wife, she would send all her earnings to her mother so that the rest of her family could have food. Kamala also took care of her employer’s children. She would them to school and bring them back safely. When the shopkeeper and his wife went out of town, the children would be in her care. Never once did she misuse the trust that they had placed on her. She loved the children very much and always saw to it that no harm came to them.

The shopkeeper and his wife were very impressed by her sincere and honest work. They told her to get her whole family to Tumkur and gave her a small room, which was a part of the out-house, for her to stay with her family. He also got her father a good job and disciplined him. The family now lived in peace.

Kamala’s parents decided to get her married and found a suitable boy for her. He was a skilled electrician, and worked in a shop for repairing electrical goods. So Kamala had no money problems. She had 2 children and she thought life had, at last, taken a nice turn. She had big dreams of sending her children to school, and educating them.

Her parents were very happy as her younger sisters and brother were going to school and all seemed to be going well for them. They got jobs after their schooling. In good time, her sisters and her brother were happily married.

Kamala’s happiness, however, did not last long. One fine day, her husband just did not turn up. He went after another woman and left home, leaving Kamala and her 2 children to fend for themselves.

After a few months of weeping and being drowned in sorrow, Kamala went to her parents. By then, the parents were too old and pleaded helplessness.

She then went to her brother for help. He was so engrossed in his own progress, that he told her that he had no time for her.

She went to her 3 sisters’ homes, but they told her that she should have known how to manage her family better. They said she was foolish and they could do nothing for her. It was time for them to enjoy life now, after all the struggles.

Sitting forlorn under a tree, Kamala wondered at the strange behaviour of her relatives. Looking at the dry and barren branches of tree she was sitting under, she felt her life, too, was similar to that of the tree. However, it dawned on her that the latter was still standing because of its strong roots. She decided she, too, would stand tall in this world, educate her children, teach her husband a lesson or two and survive in this cruel world.

She went back to the shopkeeper, worked once again, sincerely and honestly, for years. With the pay she got from her work, she educated her children. Both the children studied well and succeeded in becoming clerks in an office and they took good care of their mother. Yet she continued working for the shopkeeper and took good care of him and his wife in their old age.

Being pleased with her service, the shopkeeper and his wife had left her a sum of Rs 10 lakh in their will. She was surprised and wondered whether she deserved this gift from them.

After their death, when the money came to her and her husband learnt of this, he came back to her. He promised that he would leave his other wife and stay with her and take good care of her. But Kamala would have none of this nonsense. She threatened to beat him up in such a way, that he would never dare to come anywhere near her house.

Her brother came and fell at her feet and begged her to forgive him. Kamala by now knew too much about the ways of the world; she just would not have anything to do with him. Her sisters came to her and said, “Whatever it is, we share the same blood. We were born to the same parents. You must realise that and forgive us.”

Kamala told them all they were out of her mind and heart; she wanted to have nothing to do with them. It was now her turn to laugh and scoff at them. What an irony of fate, she thought. The shopkeeper and his wife were not related to her but they had supported her at every stage of her life for her honest and hard work.

That was when she landed in my house — weak in body but very strong in spirit. She seemed to be totally relaxed in her mind.