Dignity of labour
My domestic help’s daughter was married earlier this week. It was a wedding I took great pride in attending.
My domestic help, K, has been working for our family for more than 25 years. In all that time, we have never treated her as a ‘servant’. And she too has always been dignified in her approach.
K knew what was expected of her, which she would deliver with all sincerity. She has never used her economic disability to ask for favours and whenever she required monetary help from us, she would repay it to the penny.
On our part too, we respected her pride and never made her feel small because of the economic divide.
K is an integral part of our household, being with us through weddings and deaths, through joyous moments and the not so ones.
Recently, I was casually talking about her to a friend. I had been upset with K over some triviality just as I would have been with any family member, and I was telling my friend about it. Imagine my surprise when my friend condemned me for being a ‘slave driver’.
This friend was a self-proclaimed activist for the downtrodden hence her prejudiced view. We did have an argument in which I had to explain to her that economical constraint was not the same as being downtrodden.
K was definitely not downtrodden. Yes, she was uneducated (because of the social backwardness prevalent during her growing-up years) but she didn’t allow herself that excuse. She chose to be independent by doing what she could to share the household finances with her husband.
And by employing her as helping hand for my domestic duties, I was actually helping her give her daughter a good education that she was denied and now, the dream wedding.
Vidya Shankar
Published in The Gulf Today / Short Take, dt Nov 17, 2018)
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/48118262-f0d1-4c2d-89f6-25e0c99b3a58.aspx
#TheQuintessentialWord #FlautistofBrindaranyam
Here's my first book! An ensemble of poetry and photographs.
Click the link below to watch a 30-second promo video.
https://youtu.be/5BhbjMaIwpk
You can buy it at this link:
https://notionpress.com/read/the-flautist-of-brindaranyamwww.facebook.com
My domestic help, K, has been working for our family for more than 25 years. In all that time, we have never treated her as a ‘servant’. And she too has always been dignified in her approach.
K knew what was expected of her, which she would deliver with all sincerity. She has never used her economic disability to ask for favours and whenever she required monetary help from us, she would repay it to the penny.
On our part too, we respected her pride and never made her feel small because of the economic divide.
K is an integral part of our household, being with us through weddings and deaths, through joyous moments and the not so ones.
Recently, I was casually talking about her to a friend. I had been upset with K over some triviality just as I would have been with any family member, and I was telling my friend about it. Imagine my surprise when my friend condemned me for being a ‘slave driver’.
This friend was a self-proclaimed activist for the downtrodden hence her prejudiced view. We did have an argument in which I had to explain to her that economical constraint was not the same as being downtrodden.
K was definitely not downtrodden. Yes, she was uneducated (because of the social backwardness prevalent during her growing-up years) but she didn’t allow herself that excuse. She chose to be independent by doing what she could to share the household finances with her husband.
And by employing her as helping hand for my domestic duties, I was actually helping her give her daughter a good education that she was denied and now, the dream wedding.
Vidya Shankar
Published in The Gulf Today / Short Take, dt Nov 17, 2018)
http://gulftoday.ae/portal/48118262-f0d1-4c2d-89f6-25e0c99b3a58.aspx
#TheQuintessentialWord #FlautistofBrindaranyam
Here's my first book! An ensemble of poetry and photographs.
Click the link below to watch a 30-second promo video.
https://youtu.be/5BhbjMaIwpk
You can buy it at this link:
https://notionpress.com/read/the-flautist-of-brindaranyamwww.facebook.com
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