After bidding bye to my hubby, I was about to
start my household chores and thought why not watch some movie? Well thanks to YouTube
that I don’t miss my TV these days. As I was searching for a movie, a recommendation
came up of "Malgudi Days - The Willing Slave". I thought "y not
go back to those childhood days where there was only DD1 and akashavani for
entertainment " as I opened the video.
As I finished my chores and the video which was
the story of a maid, Aaya, who worked at a wealthy family and taking care of the
three children of the family with so much love and affection, I remembered a
girl "Dhana Laxmi" who worked in our house. She had similar affection and
love for our family. Suddenly a message
came up on my Facebook account, it was a reply from my sister-in-law for my
wishes on their anniversary. It said "thanks dear. It’s amazing that I put
up with your brother for 10 years". I smiled and a thought strike my mind
"so it was about 10 years back that I met this girl Dhana Laxmi".
It was almost the same time when my brother who
was staying in US was planning to marry his beloved, when my mom brought Dhana Laxmi, Dhana as we call her, to our home. Dark complexion, big eyes and a charming smile on her face but one
thing everyone noticed was her thick long hair. She was about my age, may be
that is the reason we became close friends in a short time and she shared all
her thoughts with me.
She never knew what a mother’s love was, her
mother passed away when she was 8. Her father though raised her, did not give
her that care and attention since he also had to take care of three more kids.
Mm... Well you can also say he was more inclined towards his son than his three
daughters. As they say in India “ladkiyan, maa baap pe bhoj hoti hain”. He
thought in the end, it is his son, who is will take care of him. He didn’t
knew that this thought cannot be right for everyone.
Well, I can go on and on when it comes to
how they treat girls in our great nation where women are worshiped as source of
power “The Shakti”.
Anyway, Dhana and her family stayed in a rural
village on the border of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. After the marriage of both
her sisters, they moved to Hyderabad. One of her sisters “Hema”, had an inter-caste love marriage. I can guess her father probably must have had huge
clash about this, though the person was from higher caste, because they were
still not in good terms. Why am I mentioning her sister’s story? well she is
kind of important.
Hema’s actions had impact on her father’s disciplinary
measures on Dhana. He was very strict. I still remember, though he had complete
trust on our family, once when she went to a movie with us and while returning
back, we escorted to her home. We were 30 mins late than the scheduled time of
her father. As we entered the lane and Dhana was already at the doorstep of her
house, we heard a huge sound of her father slapping her at the doorstep, not
giving a chance for her or for us to explain. We were asked to leave at once.
One thing I liked a lot in her that despite of
the troubles she faced like her father’s behavior, Her brother’s arrogance with
her and did I mention that she was the only earning member of family at the
same time was only person doing all the chores of her house, she never lost
that charming smile on her face.
But May be something which called itself fate, was
jealous of her charming smile that it came into her life as love.
To Be Contd..
To Be Contd..
