Six Women, by Neelofar
The First Woman
A bucketful of colourful clothes soak by the door. Soapy foam has formed over them. Beside this bucket is another one, filled with water. A middle-aged woman furiously rubs a cake of Phool soap on a pink salwar kameez. The soap fights the dirt of the suit without lathering. She now scrubs it with a brush. Her manner is hurried. Her muffled voice shows the strain. “I have to finish all this quickly,” she says, “Then I have to get Preeti from school”.
“But it's only 10:30,” I insist. “School breaks by 12:00.”
“Yes, 12:30,” she corrects me. “But I have to prepare lunch, bathe my younger daughter, and take a bath myself.” She is short on time.
“When did you get Preeti admitted in school?” I asked.
“Two days ago. Who knows what fate awaits these jhuggies! Someone says they will stay another year, and someone says the second round of felling of houses will be on the 27th of this month. Schools were about to close admission. An entire year of Preeti's school education would have got wasted. So I got her admitted for the time being.” She didn't stop washing the clothes for a moment as she spoke with me.
“Which class did you get her admitted to?”
“First standard. She was in the third here. But the school here didn't teach that well. Schools outside are better.”
Then she halted her washing. “Yesterday, god took mercy on us.”
“Why? What happened?”
“The roof of our room caved in last night. We got saved because we had shifted to the room downstairs. It was too cold upstairs. The breeze was cold, and then the roof too was leaking. The roof caved in a few minutes after we shifted out. Our roof was made of sheets of iron. If we had been sleeping under them, we would have surely died. It was sheer luck that Preeti's father thought of shifting downstairs in the middle of the night. All our neighbours said we were blessed to have escaped this.” She resumed washing clothes.
The Second Woman
She, too, was washing clothes. She sat on a high wooden bench. “I applied henna yesterday, but the colour didn't come out too well. I bought a cone of henna for five rupees.” She showed me dull mehandi coloured thin and thick lines of henna that she had made on her left hand and feet. Her anklets and toe rings glinted.
She said, “People have started to return to Nangla. Many who broke apart their own home have returned. They are now living in other's houses which lie vacant.” Her face bore an expression of having time on her side, a pride of taking the right decision and staying behind in Nangla. “A whole truck full of people came back last week. It's very difficult to manage twelve and fifteen hundred as monthly rent.”
Then her face lit up. “I have another jhuggie on the other side of Nangla. Our houses won't be felled for another year. I even have an electricity connection now.” Meanwhile, she had finished washing a bundle of clothes. She called out to her daughter to fetch a bucketful of water from the tap to rinse the clothes and started to clean her toe nails in the soap water.
Four Women
Two women entered the library. “Shabana, didn't Chhaya and you go to Ghevra recently? Did you take any photographs?” Shabana handed an envelop filled with photographs to them. They looked through them, totally engrossed.
“Oh look masterani [tailor's wife], look how children bathe at the hand pump! An elevation has also been constructed around the hand pump.”
The other woman picked out one of the older photographs from the soft board on which they were displayed. She looked carefully at it. Then she said, “You know when I had gone to Ghevra, construction was just beginning.”
“Yes,” the first woman responded, “the speed of change is very rapid. By the time we go, a lot will already be ready.”
She browsed through the photographs continuously.
“Look the road that is being constructed is so broad.”
“The lanes are wide. At the time of a power cut, one can just lay cots in the lanes and sleep.”
“The soil looks so fine, brown and moist. Not black like it is here.”
“Shabana looks so pretty surrounded by cattle!”
“Look, all the houses are in a neat, straight line.”
She paused and commented on each photograph that passed through her hands.
Shabana said, “Is your mind at peace now about going to Ghevra?”
One of the women looked at Shabana, smiled and said, “There was nothing but wilderness in the photographs you showed us before. How could anyone's mind stay calm at the thought of moving to a place that seemed worse than a graveyard? Well, maybe one can at least seek company of dead bodies in a graveyard!” Everyone laughed. “Even if someone killed me, and left my body there, no one would know for miles!”
“Yes,” the other woman said, “It looks like a settlement now. It looks pleasant enough.”
“But it's not like settling there is going to be trouble-free,” Shabana said.
“An year and a half,” the woman responded, “That is all the time the heart will take to find stillness from being uprooted and then get used to a different place.”
“Yes, 12:30,” she corrects me. “But I have to prepare lunch, bathe my younger daughter, and take a bath myself.” She is short on time.
“When did you get Preeti admitted in school?” I asked.
“Two days ago. Who knows what fate awaits these jhuggies! Someone says they will stay another year, and someone says the second round of felling of houses will be on the 27th of this month. Schools were about to close admission. An entire year of Preeti's school education would have got wasted. So I got her admitted for the time being.” She didn't stop washing the clothes for a moment as she spoke with me.
“Which class did you get her admitted to?”
“First standard. She was in the third here. But the school here didn't teach that well. Schools outside are better.”
Then she halted her washing. “Yesterday, god took mercy on us.”
“Why? What happened?”
“The roof of our room caved in last night. We got saved because we had shifted to the room downstairs. It was too cold upstairs. The breeze was cold, and then the roof too was leaking. The roof caved in a few minutes after we shifted out. Our roof was made of sheets of iron. If we had been sleeping under them, we would have surely died. It was sheer luck that Preeti's father thought of shifting downstairs in the middle of the night. All our neighbours said we were blessed to have escaped this.” She resumed washing clothes.
The Second Woman
She, too, was washing clothes. She sat on a high wooden bench. “I applied henna yesterday, but the colour didn't come out too well. I bought a cone of henna for five rupees.” She showed me dull mehandi coloured thin and thick lines of henna that she had made on her left hand and feet. Her anklets and toe rings glinted.
She said, “People have started to return to Nangla. Many who broke apart their own home have returned. They are now living in other's houses which lie vacant.” Her face bore an expression of having time on her side, a pride of taking the right decision and staying behind in Nangla. “A whole truck full of people came back last week. It's very difficult to manage twelve and fifteen hundred as monthly rent.”
Then her face lit up. “I have another jhuggie on the other side of Nangla. Our houses won't be felled for another year. I even have an electricity connection now.” Meanwhile, she had finished washing a bundle of clothes. She called out to her daughter to fetch a bucketful of water from the tap to rinse the clothes and started to clean her toe nails in the soap water.
Four Women
Two women entered the library. “Shabana, didn't Chhaya and you go to Ghevra recently? Did you take any photographs?” Shabana handed an envelop filled with photographs to them. They looked through them, totally engrossed.
“Oh look masterani [tailor's wife], look how children bathe at the hand pump! An elevation has also been constructed around the hand pump.”
The other woman picked out one of the older photographs from the soft board on which they were displayed. She looked carefully at it. Then she said, “You know when I had gone to Ghevra, construction was just beginning.”
“Yes,” the first woman responded, “the speed of change is very rapid. By the time we go, a lot will already be ready.”
She browsed through the photographs continuously.
“Look the road that is being constructed is so broad.”
“The lanes are wide. At the time of a power cut, one can just lay cots in the lanes and sleep.”
“The soil looks so fine, brown and moist. Not black like it is here.”
“Shabana looks so pretty surrounded by cattle!”
“Look, all the houses are in a neat, straight line.”
She paused and commented on each photograph that passed through her hands.
Shabana said, “Is your mind at peace now about going to Ghevra?”
One of the women looked at Shabana, smiled and said, “There was nothing but wilderness in the photographs you showed us before. How could anyone's mind stay calm at the thought of moving to a place that seemed worse than a graveyard? Well, maybe one can at least seek company of dead bodies in a graveyard!” Everyone laughed. “Even if someone killed me, and left my body there, no one would know for miles!”
“Yes,” the other woman said, “It looks like a settlement now. It looks pleasant enough.”
“But it's not like settling there is going to be trouble-free,” Shabana said.
“An year and a half,” the woman responded, “That is all the time the heart will take to find stillness from being uprooted and then get used to a different place.”
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