How Wrong

I see her sweet face every single morning; those big bright eyes, that mischievous smile. She’s an adorable kid. Ammu is the daughter of our house maid.
This kid has been tagging along with her mother right from she was little. Agreed, her mother does the housework for us, but does that mean that kid also has to?
Ammu will turn 11 this year. Like other kids her age, she too attends school – the only difference being she is required to “work” in the mornings before school and in the evenings immediately after school time. Make a kid her age work? Give me a break, what about the kid’s life as a child? What childhood memories will she have? Scrubbing, cleaning and getting scolded for wasting time?
I don’t think a 11 year old member of our family would be required to even wash his/her own plate; but this kid is expected to sweep, dust and clean??? Get a life!
Today when Ammu came home in the evening, her little sister was tagging along with her. I won’t be surprised if that kid gets all geared up to be the next Ammu.
How many kids around world are suffering like this?
If people of our own families don’t see how wrong this is, how can we blame others!
We talk about community work and social service.
Why don’t we look into our own homes and see where we can make "the difference” !

2 Comments:

Shashi Rajasekaran said...

oops.. all of us are guilty..so no cooments....

but we shouldn't stop at writing...lets talk someday what difference could we make...

3:04 AM

Srividya said...

good thought! let's do that next time :)

What a way to begin !

The show was at 1.30pm. We had to leave home latest by 1 to be able to watch the movie “right from the Nirma ad” as amma puts it. But then, there was something important I had to do before the movie. I had to go and enquire about piano classes. “Its just 11.15 ma, we sure can get back with enough time to have lunch before we go watch the movie” I assured her.

We only knew the location of the class, but didn’t know the exact place. I looked around hopefully. The only sign of music around there was a guitar hanging on the outside wall on the 1st floor of a building. But how on earth could they possibly carry a piano up there, I wondered.
The name at the bottom of the stairs read Victor Albert. So, this was the right place.
We climbed up the dingy flight of stairs and walked into what looked like a mechanic shop. No it didn’t have tools spread all over, it just reminded me of one, don’t know why. On the left there was a Sitar and a guitar, to the right of us was this kid who was playing the keyboard and a man sitting next to the kid, with his back towards us. There were a couple of guys there, one of whom handed me a diary and asked me to fill in details like my name, address, phone number and the instrument of my interest-- which I did diligently. “Please wait, he’ll be with you in 10minutes” this guy said and left.
All these years I thought 10 minutes was like 600 seconds, which went by real fast. Only today I realised when some people say 10 minutes, they subtly mean an hour or so.
There we were waiting to speak to the master, enroll and if possible start with my first lesson today itself. Little did we know what was in store. Patiently we kept waiting while Mr.Albert (who shall henceforth be referred to as he /him as the case may be) spoke on the phone. All of a sudden, we heard weird shhh…ing noises. This was him, still speaking over the phone. “Where had we landed” we wondered.
Then the maid came by and had to clean up the place. So we got up so that she could sweep and mop the floor. “Why doesn’t he talk to us, and get it over with” amma asked me. How I wish I knew. So there we were still patiently waiting for him.
Finally at 12.20 a man who looked a lot like what Jesus Christ would in today’s time, showed us to the table where Mr.Albert sat.
Well, this Mr.Albert didn’t look anything I imagined him to be. First of all his name didn’t suit him, maybe a Sayed or a Mohammed would have suited him better. Anyway that didn’t matter. He opened the diary where I’d jotted down my details and in a very accusing tone said “Why have you not written today’s date?? It is the presence of mind”
Eh??? Excuse me??? But I kept my mouth shut. He then scribbled down the date and shut the book tightly mumbling “This is for our records”.
Thus he begun “Let me now make a presentation to you, I’ve been doing it this way for 35 years”. So, on and on he went about the individual, undivided attention that students here got. “Yeah-sure, I saw that” I thought to myself.
Finally he drew a line on the page and wrote a few numbers, which was the break up of the fees that I was required to pay, and said, “now this is what it is. So once you have finalised if it is going to be worth it, and you really want to join, you can come back take the application form and then enroll for classes”.
The only thing that I blurted out was, “I have already decided that I want to join. The reason being I WANT to learn, so could I please have an application form and could you tell me when I can start”
At this, he turned to Jesus Christ and told him to give me the details.
Whew! There, it was over and the time was already 1.00 pm and appa must be wondering where on earth we were.
Man! Did we rush back home, gobble down lunch and dash to watch the movie.
Say Albert and I only remember the Aaal-bert of the movie “Samsaram adhu minsaram”
As Manorama puts it Aaal-bertu.. come naa commu.. come-naati go!
Cheers!

1 Comments:

Shashi Rajasekaran said...

well have you joined the classes????

and about the colours of life.. i would prefer it to remain as colorful as it is...

but we also need that shade of black which tells us how beautiful white is..

When was the last time that I ...

• Got up feeling all nice and bright right in time watch the sunrise (never used to do that even before, but that’s not the point here, is it?)
• Stuffed my face with chocolates, pastries or even ice-cream
• Went to the park and watched the kids play to their hearts' content
• Did nothing but lie down with lights switched off and listened to music
• Visited the amusement park and went on a ride that scared the life out of me
• Spent time on the terrace at night watching the stars twinkling away merrily
• Laughed so hard that I had tears rolling down my cheeks
• Stayed up all night chatting with friends – really miss those fun filled days
• Went and watched a movie and had a ball of a time
• Played the keyboard and came up with a tune that I would fall in love with and listen to endlessly
• Watched a comedy show on TV and forgot about the world around me
• Looked at the sky full of fluffy clouds and imagined what its shape reminded me of
• Watered the plants just so that I could enjoy the smell of wet mud
• Blasted music in such high volume that people came to order me to turn it down
• Went to the beach and spent the day just watching the waves touch my feet and go away
• Went on a shopping spree till I almost got bankrupt
• Had a long telephone conversation with close friends (something other than cribbing about life)
• Smiled to myself on being reminded of a precious moment or two….

When did I last do any of these… I truly don’t remember.
What has become of the “ME” that I used to be?
Who am I? I just wonder !

2 Comments:

Shashi Rajasekaran said...

its wish full thinking if thou wants the "ME" to be timeless.. it never is..

"the old order changeth..giving place to the new"..its the most ineviatble law of nature...

hmm the plaesure we have walked through in life are like kneaded clay.. so flexible.. so much fun to play with.. but derives a use when baked into pots....we are getting baked everyday.. getting plastered everyday to a wall thats to wall us..

3:02 PM

Srividya said...

Hey pal
I agree with what you say...change is the order of the day.
But should we let our lives change so much that we forget the very nature of our true selves....? this was what I was musing about :)