Check out this video clip for the popular old song , "chatur Nar" ( clever lady) sung by a very old friend Tapan and a very new relative Dilip Kawathekar at the gathering for us in Indore.
Roshni, a household help
I am still in Indore so lots of socializing going on and I am taking pictures of friends and family. I picked the one with Shobhna Khare. She was the only other girl with me in the engineering college in a class of about 250. We were together for five years, shared many hours of studies and after graduation lost touch completely. She happened to be in town just for half day and a common friend arranged a lunch. It was great to see her after 43 years. It was like we never left, we talked very fast trying to catch up because she had only two hours before she had to leave.
Shobhna is the dean of a well reputed engineering college, has two kids both in LA. She and her husband are alone here and are seriously considering pros and cons of moving to LA to be close to the children and grandchildren. This is typical NRI ( non resident Indian) dilemma that many Indian parents and children are facing. The kids are well settled in USA and the ageing parents know that sooner or later they will need help and there is no infra structure to provide care of aging and old. Many are moving to USA (some reluctantly) others are dealing with it as best as they can by making several short trips to USA and few are trying to form groups and societies to resolve this growing need and see a great business opportunity in providing the quality care for affluent aging but I personally feel that no care can replace being close to the kids and grand-kids.
I wonder if I did not go to USA, what would my life be in the alternate universe. The Dean of an Engineering college or a disgruntal house wife or a successful business person? I guess everything in life have pros and cons and shades of grey.
This brings me to Roshni ( meaning ray of light) . Roshni does not have a last name, she does not know how old she is , she is beautiful , young, loves to watch serials ( Indian soap operas) , to dress up and she does all the house hold work for my sister in law. She is the house maid. She has been working here for last five years , I guess she was 12 or less when she started. It is against the law, it is child labor and all other BAD things that we typically think about. But the other way to look at the situation is : she talks about how bad it hurts when getting beaten up with a belt when she was home.Her father used to get drunk and beat up her and her mother. One day he got drunk and burnt himself. Her step Dad waits for her to come home so he can take her salary and use it to get drunk. She hates to go home but goes there for her mom. Her mom says, Roshni is safe here at my sister in law's home. If she was in village, her mom would be constantly in fear for her safety because Roshni is pretty and young. Like everything else in India , this makes you rethink and reevaluate.
One story about Roshni: Roshni found a baby squirrel , nursed it like a baby and let it go on the tree nearby. The Squirrel used to come "home" every evening, eat from her hands, hang out around her while she peeled the peas and cleaned other vegetables , ate the little larvae ( if there were any) and slept in the box made for her. This went on for five months till one day Roshni founds her dead crushed by an ongoing vehicle. Roshni did not talk to anyone for five days. ( i will put some cute pictures on next time) Good night.....
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