REPOST: Story - "panipilla" (English Translation)
Sastry Isukapalli
The following is a nice story (Translated from telugu and posted on SCIT by
Gopichand Katragadda).
Please enjoy!
Sastry.
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The Maid Servant
This is a translation from the Telugu original "pani pilla" - the maid
servant, written by Gopichand Tripuraneni. Gopichand Tripuraneni,
recipient of the prestigious "Sahitya Academy" award, was called "Katha
Samrat" for his command over story telling. The present story is from an
anthology of short stories by the author published in a book titled
"Maaku Unnai Swagataalu" - We Too Have Aspirations.
Translator: Gopichand Katragadda
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I have worked at this house for two years now. I sweep the
floors, heat the bathing water, cut vegetables for my mistress, and
attend to other such chores. I also take the children out to play
whenever I get the time. Honestly, there is no task in this house I
don't attend to.
I know that I am good at what I do. I never crib when additional
work is dumped on me. I attend to all the extra chores without any
expression of displeasure. For all this work and also washing clothes
for the entire family, I am paid eight rupees and given one meal in the
morning.
I begin my work at seven in the morning. The master has his
breakfast and leaves for work at 10:00 am. The children too leave around
then. The two babies are then left in my care, while my mistress has her
bath and her breakfast. Only then, well past ten, does she ask me to
have my breakfast. Hunger never bothers me. It is not as if one can eat
whenever hungry. One is hungry most of the time, hunger can be overcome
by pressing one's legs hard against one's stomach. Thinking thus helps
me ward off my hunger, while watching the family have their breakfast.
However, as days pass I seem to think differently. I now want to eat
along with the family. I cannot recall how or why this change occurred.
After finishing my work in the house I am able to return to my
home only after eight in the night. My mother usually is not back even
at that late hour. She goes to work in a big bungalow. The people in
that place finish their dinner only around 10 p.m. Only after that does
my mother leave with the little food that is her share. By that time I
wash the pots, cook food and go to sleep swallowing a few morsels of rice
with some hot chutney. At times, too drowsy to do any more work I fall
asleep before my mother returns. She wakes me up if she has brought home
something to eat. If not she too curls up beside me and drifts off to
sleep. She wakes up at five in the morning and goes to work after waking
me up. I sweep the house, clean the pots before leaving to reach my
place of work at seven. A couple of times, after having woken up, I have
laid down and gone back to sleep. I would wake up trembling with fear
and hasten to my place of work. Now what would I tell my mistress? That
on waking up, I felt unwell? Would she believe that? Or, that I had
overslept and did not know how that happened? Would that satisfy her?
"Who do you think will do all this work, your grandfather?", she would
ask. "Look at the condition the house is in. Who will look after the
children, your father?", she would shout. "This won't do, you need not
come to work from tomorrow. We shall look for another servant. Do you
think we are putting up with you because we have no choice?" She would
go on with threats like these and more. I would keep quiet and not
argue. Was I not at fault being late? What is the use arguing when at
fault? Resignedly, I would start up my chores. But that was wrong too.
"Why are you silent like a rock? My words are mere raindrops on a
buffalo's back, aren't they? You fool! you keep silent and do only what
you think fit". "Let her taunt, the fault is mine", I would tell
myself. But in the course of time my thoughts have undergone an
inexplainable change. Now I even consider talking back to her, I don't
know why. All kinds of rebellious thoughts are welling up in me. Where
do they originate and why now?
I carry lunch for the master at his place of work. Previously
the rich delicacies cooked by the mistress never interested me. But now
a mere thought of the contents of the lunch carrier makes me desire
tasting it. True, it was agreed upon when I joined work that I was to
get only the leftovers from the previous meal as my share. However can
not my mistress show some consideration? After all I am a little girl.
Does it not occur to her that carrying food for some person to eat while
I myself was on a hungry stomach might make me crave to have some of it.
After all I do not eat much. What will she loose if I eat some too. The
children waste the food served to them. They scatter food all around the
place and never finish the food in their plates. It is I who clear up
after them and wash their plates. Is it any wonder then that I get
infuriated at such wastage of food. A part of it would satisfy my
hunger. Doesn't my mistress realize that instead of throwing away the
food she could save some of it as my share? Does she consider me as a
person at all, I some times wonder.
While I struggled with these emotions, my mistress called me for
my lunch. The previous days rice and lentils. Even if I were given the
same stuff in the morning it would have been great. Now, the cold lumpy
mess did not look the least bit appetizing. Just some time earlier I
served the family hot rice cakes, upma and curry which I prepared. They
wasted half the food served to them. Why couldn't I have some of that?
Why should I wait till the family has their meal and my mistress has her
nap till I get my lunch? Not able to take this treatment any longer I
asked my mistress. "I am hungry, can I have some fresh food?". My
mistress was shocked to hear this and she jumped up in fury. "How dare
you! You think you are the favorite daughter of our family that we feed
you what we eat? Do you want to be pampered like a pet of the family?!
You cant stay here a minute longer. Get out this instant".
I dragged myself back to my hut. Without realizing it I drifted
off to sleep on the floor. Sometime during the night my mother returned
and woke me up. On hearing what happened she was infuriated. "Couldn't
you have waited for your mistress to ask you to eat and then eaten
whatever you were given? Who do you think you are to expect to eat at
the same time as the family. It is difficult enough earning to feed
myself. Now I have to fend for you too. Die ...D-I-E". She beat me
indiscriminately. She kept beating me and she too started weeping. Then
hugging me she said in a choked voice. "No, not even God will allow
people like us to die..." --
Original Poster's E-mail : go...@iastate.edu
Arunkumar M. Sampath
That was a very good mail (story). Please post more of such stories in the
future, if you can. Thanks.
- Arun
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Arunkumar M. Sampath
Vibrations Laboratory
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
(301)405-7663 (O) (301)474-7893 (H) (301)314-9477 (Fax)
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