Sundari Amma

"Are you coming nallekki Amma?” I asked a fifty five years old lady who comes every day to our house to clean it. She is our maid. Dark complexioned, swift and effective helping hand whose chores are such which needs to be done every day. Dusting, mopping, sweeping, washing the utensils and then finally cleaning the wash rooms. By the beginning of every month we pay her a salary which has been mutually decided.

We, I and my husband, live in a semi urban locality called Pallikaranai which happens to be at the south of Chennai. My husband is a scientist and his working place is just a stone throw away from the residential complex in which our flat is located. This is my husband’s recent posting. When he was looking for a flat in the town to take as rent, he liked the locality and of course the size itself which was perfect for him. The other reason why he liked the place was that he needed not to arrange for a maid now because Sundari Amma was the maid of the house. My husband got to know that in Chennai people may come and go but the maid of a rented house never changes. Then my husband moved in. Within few days my parents in law came to Chennai to visit their son. As Tamil is not our native language, therefore my mother in law started speaking with Sundari Amma in Bangla and Sundari Amma reciprocated  her with her fluent Tamil.My mother in law after speaking to her deciphered only one word ( although that too in  English ) ie “Marrige,Marriage” (in the perfect Tamil accent). She inferred that the maid is asking her to arrange for her son’s marriage as quickly as possible. Then after few months we got married and the flat became our home!

Every day at 10:30 am our door bell sings: “Tinggg…Tonngg….open the door please!”….and I know Sundari Amma is there…Every day I would rush to open the door and every day she would grin at me as if she is coming only to meet me. Then her work would start. Sometimes I feel amazed how she drapes herself in a sari perfectly pinned and arranged and then works so rapidly. When she carries the sweep or the mop she oozes the confidence within her showing the ability to do the concerned work with élan. The gait shows her experience in her own field literally.

As now I am a home maker and majority of the time I am at home therefore the role of a maid in my life has really got elevated and that too very suddenly. Earlier when I used to work and quite often went outside I have never seen or rather never bothered about the fact that a maid is working in our place. But now I literally wait for my maid to come to our home.

The other day my husband was working from home. Sundari Amma came as usual. I was cooking in the kitchen and Amma was washing the utensils. In the meantime she started speaking to me, in Tamil. Although it is more than a year now that I am in Chennai but unfortunately I could not learn Tamil except few words like tanni (water) , pal (Milk) ,sur (Hot), kunjun (some) and of course my favorite nallekki (tomorrow).So now there is a situation where my maid is speaking in a language which is somehow an alien to me. I am trying my best to catch upon with few tanni or pal or sur or kunjun or nallekki but in vain as she was too fast in her speech. Amma kept on telling her saga in her immaculate Tamil. Then she suddenly realized that I didn’t even understand a word. Now she started telling me the same story again with her sign language that is with her eyes and hand movements. Understanding the fact that the lady wants to speak with me and she was speaking something serious…I nodded my head giving her this impression that I am trying to understand her. Then I started to speak with her saying an occasional “ok”…, “Hmm...Hmmm” and “it is alright.”

After sometime I came out of the kitchen bringing two glasses of lemon juice in the study where my husband was working. My husband looked up from his laptop to me and said: “Did you realize that you have been speaking with Amma for the last half an hour. And the best thing is that you in English and she in Tamil. Have you understood a word she said?” Then he took the glass of juice from my one of my hands and asked me to sit beside him. I said: “I believe yes. Yes, I have understood. You know she was saying that she cannot come tomorrow to work as at her locality there is no drinking water. Therefore a water tanker would come and she needs to fetch water from the tanker so that she and her family could manage and sustain for few days till the tanker comes the next time. “Taking a sip my husband said: “Hmmm…well, is that fine if you just cross check it with our neighbors who are Tamil?” I said: “ok”.

My neighbor Ragini and her family are from Vellore. I knocked at her door which is just next to ours and informed the situation. So for the time she became our interpreter because she was quite fluent with both Tamil (her native language) and English of course! I shared with her my struggle to learn the language and she appreciated my efforts. She also told me that I happened to infer the maid’s communication correctly in the very first place and we laughed at my guessing ability of a“foreign”language.

So few months passed by. By that time I have cleared my German Language examination from Max Muller Bhavan in Chennai. The conversation between Amma and me continued as usual. She in Tamil and myself in English. Why English from my side because by that time I knew four languages: Bangla, Hindi, English and German. Now being in Chennai I was quite comfortable speaking in English as somehow I have realized that any native Tamilian prefers to speak in English with a non – Tamilian. Now in this curious situation wherein my maid does not understand any of the languages which I know and I do not understand what she knows as a language; there was a real problem!

Overcoming the problem of understanding a language, we anyhow spoke. She told me that she is a Tamil Christan.She has studied till class V. She likes Jayalalithaa a lot because during the election campaigning she and her fellow neighbors were gifted with a pressure cooker and have been asked to vote for the Big Amma.She also told me that she is separated from her husband because he is alcoholic and never used to contribute to the family financially and emotionally. She told me what kinds of difficulty she faced to raise her three children single handedly. She told me that now she is a happy woman because her two sons are not alcoholic and take care of their own families whole hearted. Now she has only one burden that is to find a nice groom for her only daughter. All these and more she told me in Tamil and I understood. Let me confess I have not learnt Tamil till now sadly!

The more difficult part was for my husband. He suddenly had realized that in my conversation I have started moving my hands quite often. He believed that while speaking one should always maintain decorum, i.e. not to move one’s hand. So every time we go out to visit someone or someone pays visit to us, he would very lovingly chide me not to move my hands while speaking. But majority of the time after looking at my mode of expressions the other people also start to speak having their hand movements quite visible. When that happened one day I just looked at my husband and he gave me a look of “ok you won” types and we laughed heartily without even speaking any words! So the idea of speaking without any hands movement was the topic of history now in our family. And I am very happy for that. And for that matter my husband too.

One day, when my husband went for a tour to another state for official work, I fell ill. I was having high fever. I could not move. My parents who were in Delhi, my parents in law who were in Kolkata, my husband who was in another city could not come immediately. They all called me to check whether I am all right. I took some medicine but it was not working. As usual the bell sang in the morning “Tinggg…Tonngg….open the door please!” I went with a grimace in my face and opened it. Sundari Amma was there. Without saying a word I just opened the door, then went inside the room and fell asleep. When woke up may be after two hours or so, Amma was carrying a glass of warm water and two Marie biscuits. I had not had anything since previous evening.I was hungry at that time.I ate the biscuit and drank the water.Amma took the glass from me and went inside the kitchen. Few moments later Ragini came along with their family doctor. Amma told Ragini about my fever. The doctor did the regular checkup and prescribed few medicines. Amma went outside with the prescription in her hand and came after half an hour bringing the medicines from the local medical shop.Ragini was there till Amma came. We did not talk. But she gave the medicine and covered me with a bedsheet so that I feel comfortable. I slept.

One week later I recovered and our usual conversation started yet again.

Few weeks after, Amma asked me to come along with her near a wall calender in our study.This was how we communicated dates. She told me that she had arranged for her daughter’s marriage two weeks from that day. She was happy, very happy. She gave me a simple marriage card as well which was written in Tamil and invited me and my husband to come to her daughter’s marriage. She also asked for one week’s leave for the occasion.

I told the same to my husband. The next day when Amma came we both, me and my husband, presented a Bengali Tat saree, which I had received in my marriage as a gift, and a small pair of golden ear rings, that too was my wedding gift, to Amma, saying : “ These are for your daughter!” Accepting the gift on behalf of her daughter she gave a beautiful look. Few drops of tears in eyes and a wonderful smile on her lips. She blessed both of us saying “God bless.Thank You!” in English.

The week Amma took leave for her daughter’s wedding, we planned for our trip to Andaman Islands in Indian Ocean. On the day of Amma’s daughter’s marriage we were at the shore of Radha Nagar Beach in HaveLock Island. Me and my husband walked hand in hand relishing and watching every wave coming to us and again going back to its origin…till the evening and wondered how beautiful the world is.This time we did looked at each other but did not laugh but smiled which never needed any words!