Nature attracts everyone & so do me and I want to get wet again and again by nature's love. I always love & wait for the rainy season to come throughout year... One rainy day, while enjoying the rain, I was standing in the balcony with a cup of tea in my hand & suddenly my eyes stopped at the vegetable shop of the society just opposite to my landlord’s house. I saw society cleaner cleaning and collecting the society garbage in his cart, but my eyes got stuck in the cart, where his 5yrs old son was sitting aside, he was properly dressed and waiting for his father in the cart, and in the same frame I saw a young professional father carrying his little girl, they stopped at the society’s gate waiting for her school bus. That scene made me realized father love is eternal, no matter what your profession is, rich or poor you are, that fatherly love is same everywhere. I got so mesmerized by that view that I didn’t even realize when my tea mug stood empty & I was just standing, thinking, joining dots of my own thoughts. Few hours later, I saw Rajkumari didi(my maid), entered my room and said, Sorry didi, I got late due to rain. Me: No worry, Didi. I understand your issue, its rainy season. You can come any time Rajkumari: Thank you didi, you are very supportive. Time flies, in my new job and new city One morning, I was as usual getting ready for my college, suddenly Didi came in my room, from her gestures I assume than she was not feeling well. Me: Didi, all well ? Didi: I am fine and I have to be fine or else how will I be able to work? Me: No Didi, it’s not like that, your body is also made of flesh & bones. You don’t need to come to my home for work when you are sick, and I will never deduct single penny from your salary. Didi: You think so, but everybody does not think so. And as soon as she said so, Didi started crying heavily. I tried to console her, but she kept crying, then I gave her a glass of water and said, “drink water and tell me what happened”. Didi: Rajkumari Didi got emotional and said, working in the house of the people is my helplessness and my source of income too, but at the end I am also human and woman too. God have created all human beings. Me: Yes didi, I understand you & life struggles of a woman. Didi: Like every woman, I too face a mensuration cycle every month and its natural for every woman. You know before coming to your home, I do the cleaning job of aunty’s place(landowner). Today is the second day of my mensuration cycle and for this reason and I am not feeling well. Though I am not well still I attended my daily work schedule. As, I was doing my cleaning job, I have a sudden stomach ache. Could not go to the washroom which mainly used by the cleaning staff, So, without thinking much I used the owner’s washroom, once I open the gate of the washroom, mistress screamed with a loud voice “ How dare you use to our washroom, that too in your mensuration period” Me: Why? She screamed on you? Didi: I belong from the slum areas, that is the reason. Me: Didi, but you clean their house and wash their cooking utensils too. How can people be so inhuman. Me: Didi, I am sorry I was not aware of such “washroom discrimination rituals”, you are always welcome to use my washroom in any moments of time, and you don’t have to come when in your first two days of your mensuration periods. Didi: Thank you, you think like that, but people do not have the same thoughts. A house like a splendid palace, branded cars in front of the house, people are highly educated but thoughts did not change, still holding the discrimination thoughts. Me: Do not worry Didi, all will be fine. I am getting late for college. Please take care. Few hours later, I reached college, sitting on my work station I was thinking about the episode, which was share by Rajkumari Didi.. Every day I read about discrimination in the name of caste and racial discrimination, but never thought never thought about washroom discrimination that exist in our society. This episode might sound common, but I can’t accept these practices around me & living with these suffocates me. At the end some things can’t be changed completely the way you want. You can’t change world, can’t change society, can’t change people, the only thing you can change is YOU, by accepting every situation & people as they are. My thoughts are still scattered like stars, can’t make constellations out of these.
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