Short Story attempt : -1/11/'12. Inspired by our ever smiling helper, Lakshmi.
I go down to play everyday at 6 PM. Before that, I usually watch cartoons or play games on my computer, until Kani is free to accompany me to the park. She cuts vegetables and gets things ready for dinner while I sit in the living room. Sometimes she gets phone calls from her mother, saying her daughter is asking for her and if she can come home early, but she always says she cannot, and leaves only by 8PM which is when Mummy comes back from work. I asked her once why she can’t go home and take care of her baby daughter instead of taking care of me because I was almost 8 and I can go play on my own. But she just laughed and said “I wish the world was as simple as that”.
Kani’s actual name was Kanakalakshmi. She came to my house when I was just three years old and didn’t even know to tell time. Kani kept the house running like clockwork, arriving at 7 AM and briskly getting to work. The days she went on leave to her village were a mess, with clothes piling next to the washing machine and vessels scattered all over the kitchen counter. My bread would not have the crusts cut and my Complan would have too much chocolate. I would glumly eat the bland rice from the school canteen at lunch, and walk back from the bus stop with Vanitha Aunty who lived on the seventh floor, I would have to sit in her house till Mummy returned. I did not like her house- the plastic runners on her sofa stuck to my legs, the tables were all covered with cloths in crowded floral patterns that distracted me when I tried writing or drawing sitting at the table, and there was always a lingering smell of room fresheners that she kept spraying all over the house instead of opening the windows. I was not allowed to go down to play unsupervised, so I would wait listlessly till Mummy rang the doorbell at 8 PM and repeatedly thank Vanitha Aunty for keeping an eye on me. Vanitha aunty would insist on packing dinner for us, which my mother would refuse but I knew she was relieved she need not cook after all the stress at work.
I always keep hearing this word ‘stress’ when people talk about their job. When I grow up I am going to become a veterinarian and run an animal shelter. I will take care of stray animals and give them for adoption to people who want them. I can play with the dogs all day and not have any ‘stress’. Even our school teachers keep telling us they get stressed because of us. Rohit got punished for drawing cartoons all over Miss Kavitha’s brand new white handbag which the principal told us was worth Rs.6000 and which was completely ruined now. I asked Mummy why someone would buy a handbag for that much money and she said it was because it was branded and imported from Europe. If I had Rs.6000 I would buy lots of dog biscuits to feed all the strays I see on the way to school, and a model of a dinosaur skeleton for myself. Maybe I would buy some toys for Kani’s daughter- I feel sad that she always has to play with my discarded toys, cars that have wheels missing and action figures with broken arms, and girls don’t like cars and action figures, even the ones that had all the parts in place.
Afternoons with Kani were different- she would meet me at the bus stop with a little treat for me, sometimes two biscuit with a cheese slice in between, sometimes a couple of strawberries. We would walk back and I would try to make her memorise the seven times tables along with me. We would stop at the apartment park for a few quick dashes on the swing. Once I forced Kani to sit on the swing when nobody was there in the park- she sat after I begged and begged, and held her sari tightly as I pushed her. As she went higher she laughed and laughed, and we stopped just in time when the security uncle passed by, looking at our uncontrolled giggles in suspicion.
After going home, she gives me another small snack and then I take a short nap while she busies herself in the kitchen. Then I would chat with her as she folded clothes, I used to help her until one day when Nandini Aunty was visiting and remarked “Looks like our Rishi does half her work for her and she gets paid a hefty sum.” After this she never let me do the little odd jobs I used to do, like watering the plants which I used to enjoydoing.
When it was time to go down, she would make me freshen up and insist on covering my face with talcum powder. I play with Nakul, Sahil and the other boys. Kani sits on the bench watching. She usually doesn’t talk much to other maids, who exclude her from many discussions because she is divorced unlike them.They act like they dislike her but I think they secretly admire her. I know this because once the maid with the curly hair who works in F block came home when I was lying down but not yet asleep. She was crying about her husband and how he beat her because she came home late after cleaning up from a birthday party, and how he refused to give her her own salary money, because of which she has been walking three kilometres to work the past week. I saw Kani lend her money, and I heard her telling Kani she wished she had the guts to do what Kani did. Kani said “It is all because of Shilpa Akka’s help, I was lucky I had her.” I later asked Kani how she managed to lend her money when she herself had not bought a new sari in years in order to save for her daughter. She said sometimes you had to think of other’s needs as well.
Kani seldom complained, and always discouraged complaints from me. When I complained about homework she would remind me of that if I wanted to become a veterinarian, I would have to deal with a lot worse than homework. I knew Kani had far worse problems than me though she never told me much. She used to come to work with bruises and cuts, and I would see her and Mummy talking in hushed tones and overhear phrases like ‘time you take the baby and leave him’ and ‘no use putting up with this torture’. I told Kani to listen to Mummy and that they can both come and live with us in the spare bedroom. Though I like being alone, it might be nice to have someone to share my toys with, and I don’t have to go to Vanitha aunty’s house ever. Then when her daughter Parvathi grows older, she can join my school and we can go together. I can tell her how to get into Miss Kavitha’s good books by using a ruler to draw neat lines after every answer in my notebook, and how to be careful to never sit with my head resting on my palm in Miss Roshni’s class.
I had it all planned out and I began to like this new picture of my life. Both Mummy and I could be more relaxed while getting ready in the morning and Mummy need not worry about getting home on time. And if Kani occupied the spare room, then maybe we wouldn’t get visitors like Kannan uncle who would stay almost a month and use my computer to play Freecell for hours, or Nandini Aunty complaining about Kani and watching back to back television serials with crying women bringing in coffee and revengeful mother-in-laws calling up gangsters.
I was excited about my idea and explained it in detail to Kani. She gave me a hug when I finished and started crying. I asked her if that meant she was coming but she said she can’t, and said she knew I would grow up to be a generous man. I tried asking Mummy to convince Kani but she just smiled sadly and said it was not practical because Kani had a child.
Kani did eventually leave her husband, but didn’t come to live with us. Mummy told me not to ask her about it but I used to overhear her talking about her new house-owner who objected to her separated status, and about her mother who has come to live with her. Things didn’t change much for me after Kani’s separation but it must have changed a lot for her. Though sometimes she would not pay attention to what I was saying or would cut vegetables staring at the blank wall, she laughed more, and relaxed more. She would sometimes tell me about how she dreamt of her daughter becoming a school headmistress and how she would move back to her village and build a small house of her own and not have to worry about the next month’s rent. I asked her who would cook and take care of me after she left, but she said I would be old enough to take care of myself by then.
But I am not. Kani is leaving us in two weeks and going to her village. Mummy told me it was because of her grandmother falling sick and her mother wanting to move back along with Kani and her daughter, as there was nothing left in the city for them anyway; Kani’s husband and in-laws didn’t want anything to do with her or her daughter. She tearfully told my mother that she would have to find a house in the adjoining town to work in, and that she will never forget us and visit whenever she can, and made us promise we would attend her daughter’s marriage after she grows up. I wish we could go with them- I would like to live in a village with big green fields and no noisy vehicles. But I know Mummy has her job in the city which she cannot leave.
Mummy is trying to be strong about it but I know she is very worried. I met the new lady today who will be coming to work, when she came to speak to Mummy. She seemed alright but she didn’t smile much and had a harsh voice. And I don’t know whether she will cut the crusts from my bread and put the right amount of Complan in my milk. I gave Kani a picture I drew as a parting gift – it had a picture of Kani in a nice little house with a garden and a chimney, waving to her daughter with spectacles and a handbag going to the school to teach, and next to her house was me in my animal shelter playing with all the dogs. I hope all our dreams come true.
