Corona Diaries 11 The Unseen Master

There she stood with no hopes. She knew that her owner wouldn't even pay a single penny before leaving, but still, she waited near the doorsteps of her owner's house with gloomy eyes. She could barely overhear the conversation between the owner and his wife. She assumed that he was having his morning breakfast and thought of waiting for some more time and sat down near the door. She was tired as she would start her work by 5 am in the morning and that would go on till 5 in the evening as she was the only breadwinner of her house with 3 young children to feed upon. She had lost her husband long back and with difficulty, she had admitted all 3 children into a government school nearby. She was successful in managing both her job and kids until the Corona hit our country. She was slowly asked not to come for a job because of this. This was her last day in this house. Sitting there, she tried to count the money tied up in her saree pallu. She calculated it and came to a conclusion that if she could skip a meal for a day, the money would last for a month, so she thought of another alternative wherein she thought of buying a pound of bread from the local bakery every day with milk that would last for the whole day and this way she wouldn't have to spend on either the grocery or fruits or vegetables, and that would prolong her savings to 3 months. There was a sigh of relief from her mouth. She leaned against the door.

She stood up as soon as she saw the owner. He wouldn't even give her a damn look. She uttered, "Maalik" (meaning owner in Hindi). He stopped and looked back. She mustered up all her courage and spoke "if you could help me during this time, I would work for free in the coming months.". The owner got angry. He shouted at her "what do you think of yourself? Instead of begging for money, you are telling me that if I pay you now, you would work for free? How dare you say that get lost, we can do without you, you don't come to our house anymore...The owner rushed towards his vehicle.

 He banged the car door on her face, hearing which, she woke up. She couldn't believe what had happened just now. She had dozed off in anticipation of seeing her owner and whatever happened was all in her dream, and after the thud sound from the car door, she had woken up. She had missed the chance of asking for help from her owner. She burst open and started cursing herself as this was her last resort to seek help. The house door was closed, she couldn't ask the owner's wife for help too. She thought of ringing the doorbell, but then seeing the dog giving her a stray look, she walked towards her house.

She thought of buying bread to her children, but then thought of the leftovers and walked briskly towards the home so that she could feed her hungry children. As her lips were dry, she stopped at a borewell point on the road and drank water from it.

She reached her house, there was pin-drop silence. This was unexpected of her children as they would be waiting for her near the door in anticipation of food. She felt butterflies in her stomach and ran towards the door thinking of God in her mind. She could not believe her eyes.

She caught hold of the elder one and scolded him badly for stealing money and feeding his siblings. She took the food in her hand and was about to throw it out. She could feel her younger child's hand around her leg, pulling her saree to show her something. He pulled her towards the big bag, which seemed to be a shopping bag. She opened it and found groceries enough to last for 6 months. Her elder son walked towards her and told her that the owner had come in the car with the big shopping bag and had got biscuits and cake with breakfast for them. As they had not eaten stomach full last night, he had started eating it along with his siblings and so couldn't wait for her. She grabbed him towards her and pulled other children too and hugged them tightly with tears of happiness, tears of gratitude, tears of helplessness.....

Thanking the owner from deep down her heart....she uttered God cannot be everywhere so only he made Maalik!!

Thank you