One fine day...
When I saw who was at the door, I was surprised!
It was the maid Kamala.
Kamala had been at our house the previous day and had been cleaning up the house. She had cleaned all the cupboards under the kitchen platform. When she had stood up on a stool to clean the upper cupboards, the stool had turned over and she fell down hurting herself badly. In fact she was so hurt on her back that she could hardly sit or stand for some time. She had to be lying down for about two hours before she could get up and go home.
So naturally I had not expected her to be there the next day. But she had come. When I asked her, how she made it in-spite of the pain, she said, "No issues akka. I came in an auto. I did not want to trouble you with all the work."
Again I was dumbfounded. Braving the jerks of the auto rickshaw and spending 40-50 Rs from her meager salary to come to work, just did not make sense. (Her house is quite a distance from our apartment and she commutes to work in a bus everyday.) Also, though she said she had come to make our tasks easier, from my past experience I knew she was not so overly committed to her work.
Even though she did not say so, I knew what had pulled her to work. I turned back to look at my little one. My daughter's face was all excited. She was waving her hands excitedly and babbling loudly asking Kamala to take her in her arms.
I thought of the 50 rs. Kamala had spent. I thought of her back pain, which might have got aggravated in the bumpy auto rickshaw drive. And I turned around to see total and unconditional love and joy of the little one in Kamala’s arms.
I thought to myself, “Can you really measure the worth of a child's giggle and love?”
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The photograph in this post has been taken from http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/dotshock/dotshock0907/dotshock090702578/5285236-happy-young-woman-mother-play-and-outdoor-with-beautiful-child.jpg Due credit goes to the photographer
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