Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Tathastu and the Unsung She-roes in my Travels

 

I just finished reading the beautiful book ‘Tathastu’– the lovely short stories that are more like reminders, the motivating sentiments that one has forgotten and should be mindful of. First of all, I found it hard to believe that it is the debut work of the author and she has made a write-up that is an extension to her blog. One is because of the words, the articulation, and the anecdotes linking to the messages she needs to pass on to the readers. The second thing is the clarity of her thought process. All these stories are quite catchy, not too long and worth reading aloud to your friends and family.

I cannot tear apart one story and say it is my favourite as I loved all of them. Some stories are rich in sentiments, some have resplendent settings, and some fit in as positive affirmations that will set you up or propel you to move forward with confidence. The characters in the stories are quite relatable. It is like you know these people and in some or other way, have come in close contact with them in your real life.

One of the stories that I connected so well, thanks to my travels that holds ground for this text-to-life connection, is ‘Have or Have-not’. It is the story of a tea-picker Selvi who doesn’t mind torrents or merciless sun, keeps her chin up and works like there would be no tomorrow. Unfazed by the biting cold, she stands in the tea-picking record check line with a smile on her face. Her cheerful demeanour is not only unmistakable but even sprouts inspiration for others. For the outsiders, her life is laid in thorns but she thinks otherwise. She reminds us that have and have-not is a state of mind. There are always more perspectives on a situation – For selvi, this is life and her life is good, if not better with monthly catch-ups on movies, friendly repartee and banter with her work friends, and waking up to face each day with a smile. What spoke volumes in Selvi’s words was gratitude for the have’s and least consideration for the have-nots.

This brings me to my own personal experiences with the strangers that I met at random in two of my travels. The owner lady of Maggi Point in Mussoorie during the visit to George Everest’s house is so relatable to Selvi in the book. With kindness overload, she was happy sprinkling a 2-minute charm on tourists plates. We had our tummy filled with delicious noodles and we were all set for our next stop at Cloud’s end. But by universe’s decree, we were kept on hold in her shop for 30-odd minutes or so. Our chauffeur was out of sight and my husband went after him. With zero network, it was quite a task to trace him. That gave me and my daughter to stop at this point and dig deeper into the local’s lives.  Her pleasant smile was very welcoming and that nudged me to ask her about her life, her journey and whether the business is flourishing. She had zero qualms about her life and was happy in her own world. Yes, monsoons were difficult to fetch stuff from far-off cities, to stock up things for her shop, and those stubborn hill-side blood-thirsty leeches gave her a hard time. But these were part and parcel of her life.  Her entire life’s worth of happiness was tucked in these 2-minute noodles. She was happy to serve pasta to my daughter while my husband was busy digging up the whereabouts of the cab driver. In the meantime,  I caught up on a glassful of chai and invaluable life lessons of being happy and content at the spot you are placed.

On my recent trip, I interacted with a sweeper lady on our hotel property. She was sweeping the lawns and the stone staircases and keeping the place and alleys in order. Her commute time was an hour from her house and it was not very conducive in the evening to walk all the way to her house, given the unpaved roads, poor performance of streetlights on a few roads and no streetlights on others. In spite of all these, she pulled off a smiling face and was working with an inaudible happy hum that attracted me to speak to her. She said in Hindi, “Kya kare, Kaam toh karna hi hai” – which hit the nail on the wall, calling spade a spade, in so many words. Meaning life is like this, you have to work no matter what challenges you encounter. You can choose to crib or make the path a little easier by focusing on the small joys. She brings lunch from home and sometimes, she gets to eat from the hotel’s kitchen which she finds something to be cheered about.

It is easier to leave and walk out when times are tough but humongously difficult to be rooted, work and bloom amidst them. These unsung she-roes’ lives are driving forces for us humans to be mindful of the joys that come in varying degrees and show indomitable spirit in the work we are doing.

 

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