FIGHTING THE ODDS

I first met Lilly in an office environment. She ushered me into the Chief's office for my first interview. Walking behind this petite girl with long straight black hair reaching below her waistline, I wondered what her role was in the organization. She seemed shy, yet full of confidence and spoke in faultless English. My curiosity got quelled the moment Mr. Joseph, introduced her to me as his secretary. I was taken aback. After the preliminary interview was over, Lilly accompanied me to the door, assuring me that the job was mine and I would hear from them shortly. In two weeks, I got the appointment letter to join as a Stenographer in a Relief Organization, involved in collecting and distributing food, clothes, and educational material to the underprivileged communities living on the outskirts of Calcutta. 

Straight out of college, and quite green at the gills, Lilly was assigned to settle me in. I recall with amusement, my unwarranted fears of working along with men. A couple of years older, and experienced, she peeled away at my layers of inhibitions, by inviting me to the lunch room where we all ate together. Like an egg ready to be hatched, I started emerging out of my shell with Lilly beside me. It took a few months to break away from the prejudices I held about working along with men, most of them double my age. 

Our friendship grew from office colleagues to best of friends. It was then I came to know of her struggles and resolve to break the barriers imposed by her society and become economically independent. Lilly Haizang belonged to the Kuki tribe of Mizoram. Born and brought up in Aizawl, she has the good fortune of receiving an education from the Missionary school up to class VIII. Following the insurgency movement in Mizoram, and losing her parents, being gunned down by the insurgents, she had escaped from their hands, hiding behind the tall bamboo forests. Walking barefoot over rough terrain, she stumbled into the home of a foreigner who was visiting Aizawl as a news reporter. Mr. Daniel from the Netherlands took her under his wings, providing her shelter, and food and teaching her shorthand and typing, a skill that she picked up fast. She lived with him for a couple of years, learning the niceties of urban living and bettering herself to handle her life in the future. Once she was ready, Mr. Daniel, called up Mr. Joseph of the Relief Organization and requested him to employ Lilly. He paid for her passage to Calcutta and got her accommodation at the YWCA, the safest place for a girl new to urban living. 

Without a formal degree, here was a tribal girl, exuding confidence and even helping an Honours Graduate from Calcutta University, with how to place the carbon paper when typing letters. From colleagues, we became fast friends. After I left the organization to join a multinational company, I lost touch with Lilly. But her story remains in my memory folder, of how a tribal girl had overcome the odds stacked against her and with sheer determination made it to the city. I keep wondering if she is married and living happily with her husband and children, back in Aizawl.