The Lankan connection

For nearly a month now, I have a new Sri Lankan lady to clean the house. It has made life a lot easier and the house a lot cleaner. Recommended by a compatriot who works for Mira's maths tutor, she has turned out to be sincere and as good as the Banglas who have been working for me occasionally on hourly rates for the past 3-4 years. But since they were used to making more money hourly, they seemed unwilling to come on monthly salaries.

Sudharma has been a boon - touchwood - and like most maids has a sad background. Her husband, who was suffering from cancer, passed away last year and her mother takes care of her three children now
in their teens. She lives in an old villa rented out to workers like her; two in a room and five rooms like that. Sometimes she cycles (bought from someone who was leaving) to work but the fast lanes here are meant only for cars and bigger vehicles; without cycle lanes she finds it daunting. 

After Covid came, there has been a lot of two-wheelers on the road driven by food delivery boys from talabat, zomato and individual fast food joints.

Anyway S comes twice a week though with older kids, the house doesnt get dirty that fast. So I reduce her workload or find alternative finer cleaning to do. Of course being a desert, dust and fine sand gathers fast. 

S can speak Hindi better than English since she works in Pak and North Indian households; she had earlier worked in the housekeeping dept of a school in Fujairah on a visit visa. She is a Sinhala Buddhist and must be surprised by the Buddha figurine and monks painting I have at home, which she carefully dusts everytime. 

Over two years ago, I had briefly employed an elderly Lankan Catholic cook who went by the name Jinny (could be a variation of her actual name) when I was away in Beirut for a CCA meeting. She was fantastic and could make pizzas, chicken soup, sambar and many Kerala dishes. She reminded me of actress Sukumari as Dickammayi in Boeing Boeing and spoke English in style. Like Sudharma, she wore western outfits - Lankans seem to have more such colonial habits than we do. Her eyesight wasnt very strong, I felt, so I would rinse again the vessels she washed.

Jinny's good morning messages greeted me for months after that and I would occasionally call her to make pizzas. However, her messages stopped suddenly in October 2018. A neighbour who had earlier employed her as a nanny for her daughter, told me she was detained for residing on an expired visa. The tutor's maid told me recently that she went back and is now employed in India; a family who had probably employed her here liked her so much that they took her to India. God bless the poor spinster lady who devoted her whole life to her siblings.

I still miss her.

p.s. The last time we went to India, we flew Sri Lankan and had a short layover in Colombo. It was shortly after the blast in the church, so security had been tighter and Mira's pencil box in her hand baggage invited alarming beeps. Some day, I want to visit Sri Lanka, though V tells me it is no different from Kerala with its coconut trees, coconut oil, elephants and sea coast.