Vanaja was a young, newly recruited clerk working for the railways. A south Indian Brahmin she had to complete a hoard of chores in the morning which started exactly at 4.30Am everyday . Her day started with her helping out her mother, sweeping and mopping the house ( it had to happen just today, when she found the recycled nightie cloth which she used for mopping was beyond use and so She had to sacrifice one more old underskirt of hers, she tore it carefully and used a torn piece to mop the floor while carefully preserving the rest for future use) , washing her family’s laundry, cutting out vegetables, making breakfast for all her 10 family members and even helping Mother preparing lunch before finally packing her own lunch box.
But today everything had gone horribly wrong , one she woke up late, real late, 7AM, then she found her ailing asthmatic brother needed help, and then she realised her mother too was sick and so could not get herself up from her bed which invariably meant she had to make sure every aspect of the household work fell squarely on her shoulders for the day and she would only be able to start to her office post lunch.
Vanaja finally turned the kerosene stove down and cut the flame fully. Wiped her brow with her saree end and carefully picked up the boiling Sambar vessel from the stove using the same saree end in a manner she could hold two ends of the round neck of the vessel and then with a turn of her torso placed the vessel in a circle of other lunch related stuff that she had already arranged on the floor of their small kitchen. Then through the corner of her eye she looked at the old wall clock and cursed, realising it had stopped working and so she was fooled into believing that she still had enough time to start to her office at least after eating something called lunch but the moment she realised that the wall clock wasn't working she froze and knew she better starve if she were to reach office post lunch and save at least half a days CL. She quickly recovered her energy and rushed towards the small pooja shelf where she had her wrist watch which was gifted to her by her dad as a recognition of his love for her when she handed him her first salary of Rs.30.
At first she thought her wrist watch too wasn't working because it was showing a time that she refused to believe, she held the watch and took near her ears and shook it twice and looked at the watch again and this time she could clearly see the minute needle moving and she realised She was really, really late to her office even for the post lunch session. Just yesterday her superior Mr. Viswamithra had warned her about her late reporting and said that one more day and he would be forced mark her as LOP for a day as per rules.But, then she thought she could still make it in case she moved right away.
Vanaja, lost no time, she rushed into the washroom, opened the tap thanked her luck that the municipal tap water had still not been stopped, they used to stop it at sharp 8am and it was already 12.45 and the water was still flowing, She quickly threw her old Saree, her blouse into a corner and without bothering to remove either her bra or her full length underskirt simply picked the aluminium mug, picked water from the aluminium bucket and started her bath at jet speed. In seconds she was out, running, in her wet underskirts, the towel wrapped around her hair and another old torn rag to cover her naked breast.
She rushed mumbling a sloka, lit the holy wicker lamp ( in the process almost threw all the matchsticks from her matchbox down) took a small bit of Vibhoothi with one of her fingers she made a sliding motion so that the ash mark appeared as a neat thick horizontal line on her forehead making sure the mark appeared exactly at the center of her forehead. She then picked her box kajal and with an expert swish applied it to both her eyes with just an obtuse angle view of her small tin framed mirror. She then wriggled and unwrapped her towel wrapped around her hair rushed to put the towel to dry on the plastic electrical wire piece that was cut at two ends and tied to two strong nails located at 2 ends of their single bedroom apartment to function as their family linen and laundry drying line , the house incidentally was given to her father by the railways as a Sr. Foreman at the local railway locomotive shed.
Vanaja was now moving at the speed of light, She grabbed the first Saree she could lay her hands on, while simultaneously bringing her hair forward with an expert shake of her head and a angular bending of her torso her entire hair bunch just flew to the front she quickly held it gave it a formal brushing with a comb even if it was hard and knotty and then quickly threw her hair back while tying her hair into a single knot at the end of her hair length- in flat 10 minutes she was all set to reach her bus stop – Mettiguda, which was also the stop for all those who were connected in some way to the Lalaguda Railway hospital close by.
The bus was packed to its gills, people were crammed so close it was hard to breathe, the mid afternoon summer heat only made matters worse, Vanaja made sure there were no males anywhere near her trying to inadvertently rub onto her in the guise of the shaking and bustling of the bus, the weight of the overcrowded bus was such that the bus had bent itself onto the left side almost as if the people who were hanging out on the footboard were trying to pull it down like those anarchist at the University campus and it was miraculously fighting to remain steady and continue to worm its way towards its destination, as the vehicle laboured its way forward, Vanaja could hear the Driver giving a piece of his mind to some of the rogues on the footboard clearly instructing them to stay away from the women. She then looked around and found a few familiar faces and acknowledged them with a smile while continuously mumbling to herself about how to handle her boss Vishwamithra. She noticed the conductor approaching her, pushing his weight through the crowd and mechanically repeating the words ‘tickets, tickets' through his teeth, just as he reached nearer to Vanaja he happened to notice 2 young tots, one boy and one girl hanging onto dear life to a vertical bar and then he also noticed that they were both trying hard to hide their big moist eyes and simultaneously trying real hard to remain calm and normal.
Vanaja again looked at her watch, oblivious to the children next to her in the crowded bus, she was concentrating to get her bus pass out of her hand bag and the zipper wasn’t most cooperative, she was trying to loosen her hand bag zipper with one hand while holding onto the roof handle bar with the other hand and while she was at it she heard the driver asking someone "so where are you going?" and just then she also heard 2 children wailing and someone tugging at the bottom end of her Saree.
Vanaja stopped fiddling with her handbag and shifted her attention to the two hands pulling at her Saree and was shocked to see two little children , one boy and a girl, sobbing, and through their sobs and saliva the boy among them managed to ask her help to buy them their tickets - it did not take too much time for Vanaja to recognise little Daniel and Annie.
Vanaja was totally confused , looking at the two kids, who were both her neighbours. She first looked around to check if she could find either of their parents and was confounded further when she realised they were not around, she then asked Daniel where he was going, Daniel clutched hold of Annie’s arm and through a flood of tears told her that they, both Annie and him, were running away and so they wanted her to buy them their tickets to wherever she was going.
That's when Vanaja knew almost instantly that her half day CL which she was trying to save was now more or less consumed and in fact she will probably end up being marked absent and so will have to also bear a LOP for the day .
But without wasting too much time she decided 'so be it', these children need help, and immediately shouted at the conductor to stop the bus, the conductor too by then knew something was seriously amiss, the crowd were amused and were smirking at the kids, one of them even chided the two kids asking Hey! So you both are running away? and gave out a huge laugh even as others around joined in the mirth. Daniel surely didn't seem very amused. Annie kept looking at all wide eyed and lost. Finally the conductor blew his whistle as hard as he could and barked at the driver in his telengana slang to stop the bus, the driver hearing the bark knew something was pretty serious stopped the bus to a screeching halt.
Vanaja quickly held the arms of both the kids taking them on either side and dragged the two sobbing miniatures still in their school uniforms out of the crowded bus.
No comments:
Post a Comment