Karma In Disguise

A woman on a busy street ran towards the vehicles to beg as soon as the signal turned red. She was in her early 60's, and she moved car to car quickly so that she can cover as many vehicles as possible before the signal turned to green. After few seconds, the vehicles started honking, as the signal had turned back to green. She abruptly ran to the footpath and bought a bun and a tea from a roadside stall from the coins she had collected and slowly sat on the footpath and recalled the fruitful days of her life.

She was the wife of a wealthy man. Her name was Dhanalakshmi. She was so rich that, she never bothered to even look at the damages caused by her children. She was in her 40's and, always maintained herself. She only used branded clothes and branded items. Never allowed her children to make friends with middle-class or poor people. She kept a distance from poor people. She always hated beggars on the roads. She firmly believed to kill all the beggars; The more beggars die, lesser the poor people count.

One day a young girl named Sowmya, came to her, asking for help. She was just 16 and had lost her parents recently in an accident. She had a brother to take care off. So, she was looking for a job. She begged her to give her a job. Dhanalakshmi gave her the household job immediately as her regular maid had left the job and convinced her to work for half the salary of what she gave to her previous maid. Initially, Sowmya had problems adjusting to the household chores and the people's behaviour towards her. She was always given leftover rotten food to eat, treated like an untouchable. Gave one tea a day but watery and tasteless. Abused for not doing the work on time and gave a lot of work to complete in a day. Even after doing so much, Sowmya was never paid on time and even some money was cut giving few silly reasons. Though Dhanalakshmi treated her bad, Sowmya happily accepted whatever she told and continued her job.

After few years, Dhanalakshmi’s husband became ill and had a massive loss in their business. They had to sell their property for his treatment. She removed all her maids as she was unable to pay them. Sowmya too left as she understood Dhanalakshmi’s financial condition.

Present Day:

A woman came near Dhanalakshmi and said, ‘Aunty! What are you doing here?'

Dhanalakshmi looked at the women and left her cup aside and started begging.

‘Aunty, I'm Sowmya. Remember, I was working in your house a few years back?'

Dhanalakshmi soon remembered her and felt embarrassed. She tried avoiding eye contact and immediately got up and started walking. Sowmya stopped her and requested to tell what happened to her.

Dhanalakshi broke down in tears and said, ‘When my husband was not well, our business had a massive loss and, we started selling our property. Looking at which, my sons took their share and got settled. I was left alone with my husband, and recently he passed away. I lost everything but gained nothing. I was a rich woman a few years back, and now, I have come to roads to beg. Life is very uncertain. I never respected poor people, always thought they are low caste and unfit to live among us. I hated beggars when I saw them in traffic. I also thought the idea of killing all the beggars and live peacefully. But now, I am here all alone and no place to live.' She told and got lost in her sorrows.

Sowmya held her shoulders and said, ‘Please, come with me. I live nearby.’

‘No. It’s ok. I am fine.’

‘No. Please, Aunty. You gave me a job when I badly wanted. So, this is my time to repay you. Please come with me.'

‘I don’t want to trouble you. I remember, even you were suffering from financial crunches.’

‘Not now. I completed my graduation through distance learning, and now I'm working in an office nearby. My brother works with a CA. He has recently written a CA exam and now waiting for the results.’

‘Wow! You are amazing Sowmya. You never complained, never felt bad for your condition but kept going on. I’m so proud of you.’

‘Thank you. Please don't be hesitant to live with us. You don't have to work anymore. Live with us and give us the motherly affection which we always craved for so many years.'

Dhanalakshi felt overwhelmed and hugged her. Sowmya happily took her to her house.

 

PS: Karma is like a boomerang; What goes around, comes around. So be careful what you do and how you behave with others. Life never runs on our terms, and things can change anytime. On a daily basis, we have so many people who help us. Maids, gardener, cleaners, garbage disposers etc.., We don't even look at them as a normal human being. We are the people who make dirty and, they are the people who clean our dirt. We can't even clean our own dirt and expects respect from them in return for cleaning our garbage.