the Muslim Maid and her extended family :
which includes-
THE HUSBAND :-, who has this infuriating habit of chewing something which cud be a paan , or tambaku, or zarda, but u just keep it pressed between ure teeth, n then keep spitting out this obscene red goo, which leaves marks everywhere, and simply leaves ure teeth not-worth-looking at.
THE KID:- she wails and wails and wails and wails... and ... lemme see.... wails and wails and wails and wails...
THE MOTHER ( IN LAW) :- reminds me of those hindi movie characters who are hit by a truck, and lose their memory, and then are sent to a mental asylum, where they roam around like they're in never-never land
THE RELATIVES:- a never end que ... they keep coming n coming ( never seem to want to leave) .. so in a span of a month we've had visits from the bua, and phupi, n the brother, n sis-in-law... n for some strange reason, they all wanna just stay there ( not to miss 5 kids per couple, who tend to hang onto every visible part of the body)
last but not the least
THE MAID:- talk bout a maid with an air... i hate being all discriminatory.. but she simply doesnt fit the picture of the docile woman, who'll come running when u murmur her name.. we're talking ATTITUDE !!!
well... as it so happens, the entire jing-bang is packing up n leaving... simply because me n dad have become tyrants...
As is surely apparant from the sarcasm, the maid n company arent exactly my favorite people in the world.
However, when she came up to me and said
" Didi, hum ja rahe hain, yahan bahut mehenga hai aur mein pet se hoon "(we are leaving, because we're finding living in Napean Sea Road too expensive and i'm 3 months pregnant )
i didnt know whether to be happy or sad or angry...
happy coz they're leaving.. peace at last... end to that nasty smell which has permanantly started hanging in the kitchen, so that u no longer want to enter that area of the house...
sad coz there'll be no more plotting and scheming bout how to get back at her...
angry coz there'll be noone to harass me ( or vice versa)... and/or becoz she was pregnant again, considering India's population doesnt need any more kids just for the moment...
Wait a second...!!!! becoz she was pregnant again!!!... my thots went hay-wire from India's population.. to the muslim community's breeding habits ....and yes, they are breeding habits...
Dad told me the other day, that the Mullahs in the West Asian countries have taken out a decree asking all muslims, across the globe to produce as many children as they can...
n then the news of the Varanasi bombings... n sumhow.. sumwhere inside me I felt safer that they were leaving...
I pride myself at being secular, broad minded, against discrimination of any kind...
and yet... is it true for everyone? in sum way or the other?
sumwhere deep inside, 'the other' actually exists
