Mary
Mary was the one who reached the benchmark of Shobha of Bombay. She was a superb housekeeper and absolutely reliable. After a week of starting work she said okay now I know what is expected of me, I’ll take care. She just took over.
She kept herself and the house very presentable. By then we had a Labrador pup added to the family and that did not make her job very easy. He was teething and chews and rips apart anything he came across a socks, cushions, towel, duster, broom, footwear just about anything. Zypher the pup must have made her pick and clean the place all the time he was not taking a nap which luckily was quite frequently. He in any case like rest of the family doted on her.
The reigns of the household just slipped into her hands smoothly. She took my daughter’s bicycle to the vegetable market got fresh vegetables , decided the menu for the day, watered the plants, saw that the overhead water tank was full, literally ran the show. My daughter’s friends would drop by to have “Mary’s Sambar or “Mary’s Fish curry”. She was a good cook too. Unexpected guest, did not daunt her, she would have a meal ready in a jiffy.
Mary had only one area of doubt that was on GOD. She came from a village called senji. Apparently most of them in the village were Hindus converted to Christians and the first generation converts. Many of the old Hindu customs continued with a Christian twist. For the Pongal festival they would still decorate their cattle but would take it to the local Church! Poor kid to add to her confusion in the village they went to the Roman Catholic Church whereas in Chennai her local guardians whom she visited every Sunday took her to the Pentecost Church, which had their own peculiar rituals. To add to the confusion her questions on God were directed to me who did not believe in any religious practices, though I was on a spiritual search I really could not answer any of her questions with absolute confidence as I was still in the process of questioning the religious practices. She was only a 20 year old with the natural interest of a girl her age in films, dressing up etc but her Pentecost relatives told her she should spend all her spare time in reading the Bible and that it was because she did not have adequate belief in the Bible that her father continued to be a drunkard. She would keep switching TV Channels between Tamil film songs and the religious sermons. She felt very guilty about her interest in film songs.
She would ask me why I don’t go to Temple every week. She found it difficult to understand my explanation that I did believe in a cosmic power but could not give it a name as so and so God. I used to tell her all of us including all of nature around us is “God “to me. She would consider that seriously until the next Sunday!
She thought quiet deeply not just about God. One of her questions really amazed me. We had a cot on the terrace which we covered with a sheet. Because of the bright sunlight the colored sheet would fade quite fast. Whenever she went home for Christmas holidays of two weeks she would come back darker as she had to help her parents in the field .She would be desperate to get rid of the sun tan once back at work at our place. It was on one such occasion that she came up with this question. One day she asks me - Why is it that the color of the sheet becomes light when exposed to the sun but I my skin color becomes darker in the sun?!That was Mary for you! I had to explain about the pigment in our skin etc to her. Mary was very keen to become fair she had a dark complexion. She was quite pretty but refused to believe that, for her beauty meant fair skin. She pinned all her hope on the fair and lovely cream that she secretly applied on her face. Secretly, because she did not want her Pentecost relatives to know of it.
Mary was with us for 2 1/5 years .She left to get married.
Mary was the one who reached the benchmark of Shobha of Bombay. She was a superb housekeeper and absolutely reliable. After a week of starting work she said okay now I know what is expected of me, I’ll take care. She just took over.
She kept herself and the house very presentable. By then we had a Labrador pup added to the family and that did not make her job very easy. He was teething and chews and rips apart anything he came across a socks, cushions, towel, duster, broom, footwear just about anything. Zypher the pup must have made her pick and clean the place all the time he was not taking a nap which luckily was quite frequently. He in any case like rest of the family doted on her.
The reigns of the household just slipped into her hands smoothly. She took my daughter’s bicycle to the vegetable market got fresh vegetables , decided the menu for the day, watered the plants, saw that the overhead water tank was full, literally ran the show. My daughter’s friends would drop by to have “Mary’s Sambar or “Mary’s Fish curry”. She was a good cook too. Unexpected guest, did not daunt her, she would have a meal ready in a jiffy.
Mary had only one area of doubt that was on GOD. She came from a village called senji. Apparently most of them in the village were Hindus converted to Christians and the first generation converts. Many of the old Hindu customs continued with a Christian twist. For the Pongal festival they would still decorate their cattle but would take it to the local Church! Poor kid to add to her confusion in the village they went to the Roman Catholic Church whereas in Chennai her local guardians whom she visited every Sunday took her to the Pentecost Church, which had their own peculiar rituals. To add to the confusion her questions on God were directed to me who did not believe in any religious practices, though I was on a spiritual search I really could not answer any of her questions with absolute confidence as I was still in the process of questioning the religious practices. She was only a 20 year old with the natural interest of a girl her age in films, dressing up etc but her Pentecost relatives told her she should spend all her spare time in reading the Bible and that it was because she did not have adequate belief in the Bible that her father continued to be a drunkard. She would keep switching TV Channels between Tamil film songs and the religious sermons. She felt very guilty about her interest in film songs.
She would ask me why I don’t go to Temple every week. She found it difficult to understand my explanation that I did believe in a cosmic power but could not give it a name as so and so God. I used to tell her all of us including all of nature around us is “God “to me. She would consider that seriously until the next Sunday!
She thought quiet deeply not just about God. One of her questions really amazed me. We had a cot on the terrace which we covered with a sheet. Because of the bright sunlight the colored sheet would fade quite fast. Whenever she went home for Christmas holidays of two weeks she would come back darker as she had to help her parents in the field .She would be desperate to get rid of the sun tan once back at work at our place. It was on one such occasion that she came up with this question. One day she asks me - Why is it that the color of the sheet becomes light when exposed to the sun but I my skin color becomes darker in the sun?!That was Mary for you! I had to explain about the pigment in our skin etc to her. Mary was very keen to become fair she had a dark complexion. She was quite pretty but refused to believe that, for her beauty meant fair skin. She pinned all her hope on the fair and lovely cream that she secretly applied on her face. Secretly, because she did not want her Pentecost relatives to know of it.
Mary was with us for 2 1/5 years .She left to get married.
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