STORY OF BHAGYALAKSMI OF POLLACHI
I was at Pollachi Coimbatore Dt Tamilnadu during 1981-1982 on return from the mideast.
It was difficult to find the maids for working in the house as almost all of them used to go to the fields early in the morning by around 3-00 am and pluck flowers upto 4-30 am. All these ladies wil be given hurricane lamps and the wages depended upon the quantity of flowers plucked. Al \l the plucked flwers will be sorted and sent to almost all the places including Mysore and Bangalore. These ladies will take rest and go to the ginnig factories. Here some exotic varieties of coltton will be given to them to am\ manually remove the seed of cotton. These seeds of variety known as “Vijaylakshmi” Jayalakshmi” etc used to be sold for nearly 450 to 700 rs per kilogram. If the cottlon is ginnined in the machine there was a possibility of the seeds getting crushed and will not fetch good price in the market.
Here aalso the wages were depending upon the quantity of seed so removed . on Thursdays there is a very big weekl mrket whose turnover is not less than 2 to 3 crores of rupees. Here also the ladies used to get the job of cleaning the grains recived at thee market or grading of the3 vegetables. On Friday also there used to be a small weekly market . here also the ladies used to get good wages. So the ladies preferred workin in the above areas and none was prepared to work as a maid in any of the households at Pollach. Through our workinspector wer\ found a lady/girl who ws in the early 20’s and who was prepared to work for a wage of Rs600’- per month.
Finally we settled for her.
She used to nt only sweep and clean the house and also used to clean the frames of the windows and clean the g lazed windows. I was surprised and asked her as to who taught her all these things. She told me that she worked in a convent and thre she lernt all thesrt things. And I asked her as to why she did not continue to work in the convent. She told me that as she is a dalit and as her qualification is only upto 4th class she wil only be allotted to the cleaning of the toilet and meanial jobs even if she becomes a sister of the order. One day she brought her parents to our house. The beaty or the color of the girl did not match in any way that of her parents. When Raja came to Pollachi he was just 8 years old she just took a liking for him and started addressing as “Raja”. Raja was surprised as to how this madi knew his name!! she used to tell him lots of stories and play with him One day I asked her as to how she is different from her parents !!
She told me the following story:
It seems that she is an illegitimate daughter of a hgh caste girl. The girl who was studying in the college at Coimbatore fell in lve with a boy who was working in their household in the cowshed and belonging to the same caste. The girl got pregnant and this fact came to the knowledge of the father vry late. The doctor told the parents that the gir wil die if the foetus is aborted. So undr somepretext they took the girl to a hillstation and after delivery wanted to bring her back to the village. This family was very well to do. The girl flatly reused to part with the child and the parents had to bring the girl with the child in secrecy. Later on they found the Dalit couple who were doing the sweepers job and in the presence of “Masani amman” temple which is situated in the Vettaikaranpudur of pollachi taluk they gace the child to the these dalits and gave them lots of money. They took an oath on the “Masaniamman” that they will not reveal to anyone the parentage of the child. Later on for sometime also these dalits used to get some prvisions and money which was stopped. (More aout masaniamman later on). So this gir who was good looking and different from others of the dalit community ws married off when she attained pub erty. The marriage did nt lst long as the husband was a drunkardn and did not cre car of his wife. By that time she had studied upto 4th standard.
There were many who were prepared to mary her for her looks and beauty. But she flatly refused. She also refused to do the sweepers job. She went on to do the wok of collecting flowers and also to the ginning factory. As she was a dalit and as she had not powerful supporters she was many times evade the molestation of others males. In spite of her bestr efforts and cajoling her foster mothere refused to tell her the relal mother as she felt that Masaniamman will kill her if she told this girl about her real mother..
By around 1983 I was transferred to Tiruchi . I lost contact with the girl.By 1990 or so I had to go to Pollachi on official duty. There sent words to her and she came to meet me. She told me that one Engineer has married her and has also rented a house and taking care of her and she is now happy. I asked her as to why the engineer has rented a house when he is given a post attched quarters. She sheepishly told m that she is his second wife and he still loves her and taking care of her and evcen this fact is known to his first wife.
I was really glad. Afterwards there was no occasion to go to Pollachi for me.
I hope that (A) Bhaghyalakshmi is now really Bhagyalkshmi...
The following e mail was received from my third son Ravi Char on 1st april 2009:
Appa,
Your blog post on Bhagyalakshmi real moved me.
I remember her very well. She used to be very kind in her language. She always used to addres Raja and I as "Kanne", "Kanne".
She always was above/beyond in her work.
She was very cultured. I do remember her many times. She was the best maid you ever had.
I hope she is living well and she is happy.
When we look back in life, we don't remember our material possessions, we remember real people who touched our lives.
God bless Bhagyalakshmi
It was difficult to find the maids for working in the house as almost all of them used to go to the fields early in the morning by around 3-00 am and pluck flowers upto 4-30 am. All these ladies wil be given hurricane lamps and the wages depended upon the quantity of flowers plucked. Al \l the plucked flwers will be sorted and sent to almost all the places including Mysore and Bangalore. These ladies will take rest and go to the ginnig factories. Here some exotic varieties of coltton will be given to them to am\ manually remove the seed of cotton. These seeds of variety known as “Vijaylakshmi” Jayalakshmi” etc used to be sold for nearly 450 to 700 rs per kilogram. If the cottlon is ginnined in the machine there was a possibility of the seeds getting crushed and will not fetch good price in the market.
Here aalso the wages were depending upon the quantity of seed so removed . on Thursdays there is a very big weekl mrket whose turnover is not less than 2 to 3 crores of rupees. Here also the ladies used to get the job of cleaning the grains recived at thee market or grading of the3 vegetables. On Friday also there used to be a small weekly market . here also the ladies used to get good wages. So the ladies preferred workin in the above areas and none was prepared to work as a maid in any of the households at Pollach. Through our workinspector wer\ found a lady/girl who ws in the early 20’s and who was prepared to work for a wage of Rs600’- per month.
Finally we settled for her.
She used to nt only sweep and clean the house and also used to clean the frames of the windows and clean the g lazed windows. I was surprised and asked her as to who taught her all these things. She told me that she worked in a convent and thre she lernt all thesrt things. And I asked her as to why she did not continue to work in the convent. She told me that as she is a dalit and as her qualification is only upto 4th class she wil only be allotted to the cleaning of the toilet and meanial jobs even if she becomes a sister of the order. One day she brought her parents to our house. The beaty or the color of the girl did not match in any way that of her parents. When Raja came to Pollachi he was just 8 years old she just took a liking for him and started addressing as “Raja”. Raja was surprised as to how this madi knew his name!! she used to tell him lots of stories and play with him One day I asked her as to how she is different from her parents !!
She told me the following story:
It seems that she is an illegitimate daughter of a hgh caste girl. The girl who was studying in the college at Coimbatore fell in lve with a boy who was working in their household in the cowshed and belonging to the same caste. The girl got pregnant and this fact came to the knowledge of the father vry late. The doctor told the parents that the gir wil die if the foetus is aborted. So undr somepretext they took the girl to a hillstation and after delivery wanted to bring her back to the village. This family was very well to do. The girl flatly reused to part with the child and the parents had to bring the girl with the child in secrecy. Later on they found the Dalit couple who were doing the sweepers job and in the presence of “Masani amman” temple which is situated in the Vettaikaranpudur of pollachi taluk they gace the child to the these dalits and gave them lots of money. They took an oath on the “Masaniamman” that they will not reveal to anyone the parentage of the child. Later on for sometime also these dalits used to get some prvisions and money which was stopped. (More aout masaniamman later on). So this gir who was good looking and different from others of the dalit community ws married off when she attained pub erty. The marriage did nt lst long as the husband was a drunkardn and did not cre car of his wife. By that time she had studied upto 4th standard.
There were many who were prepared to mary her for her looks and beauty. But she flatly refused. She also refused to do the sweepers job. She went on to do the wok of collecting flowers and also to the ginning factory. As she was a dalit and as she had not powerful supporters she was many times evade the molestation of others males. In spite of her bestr efforts and cajoling her foster mothere refused to tell her the relal mother as she felt that Masaniamman will kill her if she told this girl about her real mother..
By around 1983 I was transferred to Tiruchi . I lost contact with the girl.By 1990 or so I had to go to Pollachi on official duty. There sent words to her and she came to meet me. She told me that one Engineer has married her and has also rented a house and taking care of her and she is now happy. I asked her as to why the engineer has rented a house when he is given a post attched quarters. She sheepishly told m that she is his second wife and he still loves her and taking care of her and evcen this fact is known to his first wife.
I was really glad. Afterwards there was no occasion to go to Pollachi for me.
I hope that (A) Bhaghyalakshmi is now really Bhagyalkshmi...
The following e mail was received from my third son Ravi Char on 1st april 2009:
Appa,
Your blog post on Bhagyalakshmi real moved me.
I remember her very well. She used to be very kind in her language. She always used to addres Raja and I as "Kanne", "Kanne".
She always was above/beyond in her work.
She was very cultured. I do remember her many times. She was the best maid you ever had.
I hope she is living well and she is happy.
When we look back in life, we don't remember our material possessions, we remember real people who touched our lives.
God bless Bhagyalakshmi
posted by N.S.Char at 6:40 AM
2 Comments:
I do remember lakshmi very well to-date. I always used to call her name because she used to in return call me "kanne". I used to do it often to check randomly if she still calls me by that name. My best childhood memories / moments were in Pollachi. My plan is the next time I visit india, I want to take appa / amma by car to the various cities I stayed, Pollachi, Trichy and Krishnagiri and come back. This for me is like a piligrimage!
Appa, Remembering you today and every day. Miss yoU!
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