A ROSE BLOOMED IN OUR HEART.

This article was published in The Tribune  on 18 Jul 2016. The link is below.

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/musings/a-rose-bloomed-in-our-heart-267246

A rose bloomed in our heart

FINDING a maid was the first task on my agenda on reaching Brazil on a government assignment. An advertisement in a newspaper brought five contestants.

BS Yadav

FINDING a maid was the first task on my agenda on reaching Brazil on a government assignment. An advertisement in a newspaper brought five contestants. Rose won hands down. She was a middle-aged single mother of two. She never married and was separated from her boyfriend (such ‘friendship’ has legal sanctity, like marriage, and she was receiving a stipend from him). The wage was settled as per labour norms that catered to her security and insurance. Workers have right to two holidays per week, free lunch and an additional one month salary called ‘13th pay’. Working hours are strictly eight hours, with an hour-long lunch break.

Rose reached 10 minutes prior to the agreed time and set working after changing into her work dress. She cleaned the fridge top with the help of a ladder, which was never likely to be visible to anyone. That remained her trademark working style through our three-year stay. She was sincere, hard working, self-motivated and took immense pride in her work. Whether it was cleaning the floor, doing laundry, ironing clothes, cooking or washing utensils; she did it in the most professional manner, tending to the tiniest detail. Hosting parties is an intrinsic part of such assignments and soon we planned one. Rose took on the challenge with minimum outside help which was pretty expensive. She assured us that she had handled such events and would stay back till 1 am, the time for her last bus. She never missed a working day nor came late for work. In fact, there were occasions when the buses were on strike and she had to hitchhike from her village, 50 km away. The parties with international guests went off well,  with Rose pitching in with Brazilian dishes and drinks. We took special pleasure in introducing her to the guests as dona-de-casa (head of the family) which would invite a standing ovation from the guests. 

On the dining table, where we all had breakfast and lunch together, the table head was reserved for her and she was the first to start the meals. She enjoyed the status equivalent of an elder in traditional Indian families, and that probably touched her. 

Brazil is an open society with a strong church influence which makes abortion illegal. This contrast results in girls getting into relationships and ending up with unwanted pregnancies at an early age. It is common to see single teenaged mothers struggling with the responsibility of raising children. Rose too had struggled and had a lonely, traumatic childhood. 

When it was time for us to leave, she was there with her son and daughter. She hugged my wife and cried inconsolably. For three years, she was a symbol of strength, grace and confidence and never displayed any frailty of emotions. We expressed our gratitude, saying she had given us the most wonderful time. “You gave me a family,” she sobbed, trying to shake off the weak moment. 






Comments

  1. Pahadi22 January 2024 at 23:44

    I read this one earlier. It touches one’s heart sir. Love and Kindness can move mountains, which made Rose bloom in the Heart of Your Family

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DO INDIAN FILMS ENCOURAGE IMPROPER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS WOMEN

      The recent movie 'Animal' has invited lot of debate,  criticism  and condemnation for glorifying violence, misogyny, patriarchy and male chauvinism. There has been call for its   ban and boycott. Similar debate surrounded the movie Kabir Singh-  " Do Indian films encourage stalking, molesting, violence and other improper behavior towards women?" While we debated the movies ran full house. This issue was debated too in Australia and it was well settled by an Australian judge in 2015. An Indian student Sandesh Baliga in Australia was charged for stalking two women. He had been stalking them for a long time and ignored all their calls for leaving them alone till they had no option but to approach the police. When confronted for the charges he pleaded guilty but blamed Bollywood for misguiding him into believing that women eventually fall in love if pursued/chased enough. He also stated that he learnt the art of stalking from Shah Rukh Khan’s character in film Darr.
Read more

DEBRIS OF IAF AN-32 AIRCRAFT LOCATED AFTER 7 YEARS

 On 13 Jan 2024 the news papers reported that The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) have taken some images by autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in the Bay of Bengal which resembles the debris of an An-32 aircraft. It was located at a distance of 140 nautical miles (260km) from the Chennai coast at a depth of around 3400 mts.       It was on 22 Jul 2016 when an IAF AN-32 took off from Chennai (Tambaram) at 0831 hrs. with 29 personnel for Port Blair. The aircraft AUW was 27tonnes which is the maximum permitted. The aircraft had filed for flight level 230 (23000feet) but at 0854 hrs the crew  requested for change of level to 210 (21000 feet). It reached FL210 at 0858 hrs. At 0905 hrs the crew requested a right deviation by 10 miles due to weather. However the aircraft deviated only 3 miles. The weather pattern and radar report suggest  that the aircraft would have been in severe icing for about 24 minutes after it had climbed through FL180. From the analysis of radar picture
Read more

WHATABOUTERY AND STRAWMAN FALLACY

       On retirement I gleefully joined all social networking sites which were out of bounds in service. Soon I got flooded with tsunami of comments and posts. I tried to catch some threads but was puzzled by the pattern of discussion. Though it was not new for me as the political debates which I had often heard on TV were being made on the same lines. I grew up hearing about the rich tradition of philosophical thought and debate in ancient Indian philosophy. Gargi Vachaknavi (Delhi University college Gargi is named after her) is believed to be the first female philosopher. She was famous for her intellectual debates with other philosophers. Her philosophical debate with the renowned sage Yagnavalkya about ‘nature of reality’ is documented in the Brhadarankyaka Upanishad.   After a long and intense debate Gargi humbly accepted her defeat in front of the knowledge of the great saint. The unpretentious acceptance of her defeat showed that debate was to genuinely pursue the truth. There w
Read more