Hard Labour

She was crying. She couldn't hold back her tears. The applause went on and on for fifteen minutes, the audience giving a standing ovation. As she heard the applause, her mind wandered back to the past. Remembering the day she walked home, uncertain of what tomorrow would bring. 

As she walked home that day, 24 years ago, her muscles sore, the tiredness seeping into her bones, she was making some calculations in her own mind. She could not count beyond 20 and she had to calculate everything in 20s. So every time, any of her calculations reached 20, she would file it away in her mind and start from 1 again, till she reached the next 20. By the time she had stumbled home, her calculations had finished. She had counted upto 20 a total of 8 times and then she had counted upto 16. That was her day's wages. She was happy, she had found work today and managed to earn 20 eight times and 16 over and above that. To her, that was enough money to feed her two children for at least the next three days. Her worry would again begin, if she could not find work for the next two days. Till then, she needn't worry, she told herself. Of course, today's site manager was good. He had assured that he would hire her tomorrow as well, if she was on time. But that was another challenge. She did not own a watch or a clock. Not that having one would have mattered, she had never learnt to read one. She entered her tiny hut, at the end of town, putting away all these worrisome thoughts and smiled brightly at her two young daughters, who were waiting for her to return. She hugged them both tightly, and then drank half the pot of water that was kept in one corner. She then set out her day's earning in front of her and counted out 20 two times and one ten. She gave the money to her elder daughter, who was 12 years old and told her to get some pulses, rice and a little oil. Her daughter bounded off to the nearest grocery shop. 

She then changed her clothes, washed her hands upto the elbow, rubbing with a tiny piece of soap, removing all the grit and cement stuck on her skin. She repeated the scrubbing with her feet, ankles, shins and knees. She scrubbed her face and neck and rinsed it all with two mugs of water in a tiny corner that was turned into a wash area, by putting 2 layers of bricks in an L shape, fitted next to perpendicular walls. She then took a rag of clean cloth and dried herself. She turned on the stove and put some water for boiling. As the water boiled, her younger daughter put 2 spoons of tea powder and a spoonful of sugar in the pot. She then poured the dark brown liquid in three tiny cups whose color could not be discerned. At one time, they must have been cream or white and may have had some flowers imprinted on them. But that was not visible now. The elder daughter returned with grocery, four tiny bags full of rice, pulses, some oil and a tiny, almost dry cabbage. She looked at the cabbage and wrinkled her nose. She looked with an eye brow raised, at her elder daughter. She had not asked her to bring any cabbage. The daughter looked at her and beamed, "Ma, I met Durga masi. She was winding up for the day. She gave me the cabbage for only Rs. 2." Durga was a vegetable vendor living near by. When all her vegetables were almost sold, she would often give away tiny pieces of stale vegetables at throw-away prices. She and her daughters knew it very well and they would try to reach Durga's place, just as she would be packing up. She smiled at her daughter. She then started cooking dinner. The daughters had their tea and went to the corner and picked up their slates. A van used to come to the settlement every day, a mobile school. For an hour, the teachers traveling with the van, would teach the poor children some basics in Maths, Science and language. The girls were bright, the teachers had themselves told her once. She should continue sending them to the mobile school. She was happy to know her daughters could read and write. She had determined that she would turn nights into days, just so her daughters could study.

She was ready to work hard, but work was hard to come by. Yet she tried. She went from Construction site to Constitution site, as a daily wage worker. Sometimes, she found work, sometimes she had to return empty handed, all three of them sleeping hungry. But her daughters never complained. They had seen her being abused by their drunkard father day and night. She suffered for a long time, but when her elder daughter was about 10, the man she knew to be her husband had lashed out one night in his drunken stupor and hit the child with a brick. The brick had just missed her eye, hitting her hard on the forehead. That day, she had left him and his house forever, with her little girls in tow. Durga and she were from the same village. It was Durga who had helped her find that tiny shanty at the edge of the town and helped her in her initial days. But she did not have any skills and so, hard labour was her only way of earning money to keep her daughters fed. 

The next day, she got up early and reached the construction site, half an hour before time. The site manager arrived half an hour later and saw her standing at the gate. He was impressed by her sincerity and took pity on her. He asked her about her family and was moved at her plight. He said, if she worked sincerely for 15 days, he would try and get her a permanent job with the construction company. This was her chance to prove herself, and she worked very diligently for the next 15 days. From then, her days turned better, she was hired on a monthly salary, giving her some stability. After 2 years, she became a supervisor for all the women daily wage labourers. Over years, she got more responsible positions with the construction company. A woman who could not count beyond 20 became responsible for hundreds of labourers working under her. She enrolled her daughters to school and saw to it that they studied hard. 

The applause finally stopped, as she was pulled back to the present day. Her elder daughter was standing on the stage with a trophy in her hand. Her younger one was holding her hand and leading her to the stage, as the announcer said, "Let us all welcome the mother of the best woman scientist in the country".