A
room is such a valuable possession for the assetless ... Eashwaramma built a tiny room for herself under the S.C. houseing schemes, where some money is given to the poorest communities. She had to take some additional loans to pay for the room. In the course of building the room, her husband died. He was having an asthamatic attack then, and the bricks he was carrying slipped on his
feet. That wound festered, became gangrenous, and caused his death. Some outstanding loans were repaid when
she got the insurance money for her husband's death ... The finishing stages of the room stayed pending ...
For a long while, I kept telling Eashwaramma to repair her thatched hut and manage ... and why should she waste money on a room ...
A friend or ours gave her some money to finish the pending works, and she moved in, after putting up a makeshift door ...
Some months later I saw that through she was staying in her one roomed house ... she was still cooking outside. She would not cook in this 10' by 12' room because the smoke would blacken the walls. She wished to raise the walls outside and roof it so that that can be a cooking space. But that will need 14,000/- at the least - she calculated 2000 bricks, 4 cement bags, mestri cost. She says she does not anymore have the confidence to take loans ...
I kept asking her to cook inside, and not bother about the blackening of walls ... and then i realized that the value that a room's walls have, when that is your only asset in the world. You cannot let those walls blacken.
She wished she could have a roof by the rains so that she can cook under cover ... but wishes stay wishes ... Meantime she had to bring up her two orphaned grandchildren with a cow for an asset, and ill health as her companion.
Again a friend held out a hand ... and with much happiness she has started raising the walls of the space in front.
From such a woman i get my lessons on dharmam. She respectfully feeds out of her small store any begger who asks for food. And tells me that dharmam is to eat a meal and share a meal, even if that is all we have. And she tells me the rains fail because people do not practice dharmam now.
For a long while, I kept telling Eashwaramma to repair her thatched hut and manage ... and why should she waste money on a room ...
Then one day I had gone with her down a stream to collect some medicinal roots. These satavari roots, advised by our ayurvedic doctor, have been very
beneficial for her, but in the day to day pressures she has kept postponing
going and collecting them. So I pulled her along and went. ... It was a long walk ... en route she
stopped to collect a huge headload of firewood also. We came back quite tired
and I, in the pink of health and also having carried no headload of wood, went home to
rest ... and I discovered that she had immediately gone off with her cow to
graze it and to cut and carry back fodder. Evening I saw her blowing on a damp stove outside to
get the fire going, and it was only smoking, smoking ...
I had so long been firmly telling her that our job was only to help her with the food and education of the children, and her health needs. And not to help finance her cement room ... but in the face of reality, ideology collapses ...
I had so long been firmly telling her that our job was only to help her with the food and education of the children, and her health needs. And not to help finance her cement room ... but in the face of reality, ideology collapses ...
A friend or ours gave her some money to finish the pending works, and she moved in, after putting up a makeshift door ...
Some months later I saw that through she was staying in her one roomed house ... she was still cooking outside. She would not cook in this 10' by 12' room because the smoke would blacken the walls. She wished to raise the walls outside and roof it so that that can be a cooking space. But that will need 14,000/- at the least - she calculated 2000 bricks, 4 cement bags, mestri cost. She says she does not anymore have the confidence to take loans ...
I kept asking her to cook inside, and not bother about the blackening of walls ... and then i realized that the value that a room's walls have, when that is your only asset in the world. You cannot let those walls blacken.
She wished she could have a roof by the rains so that she can cook under cover ... but wishes stay wishes ... Meantime she had to bring up her two orphaned grandchildren with a cow for an asset, and ill health as her companion.
Again a friend held out a hand ... and with much happiness she has started raising the walls of the space in front.
From such a woman i get my lessons on dharmam. She respectfully feeds out of her small store any begger who asks for food. And tells me that dharmam is to eat a meal and share a meal, even if that is all we have. And she tells me the rains fail because people do not practice dharmam now.
No comments:
Post a Comment