Lonely Lady
It is International
World Women’s Day and I see the lonely Lady I often see her in the Park in the
mornings. She comes for a breather and breakfast, while I expand my breath and
ambulate. I watch her secretly on my every round. She sits solemnly and stoically
and administers her medicine from her well organized and spacious hand bag. She
literally carries everything in it, almost her entire world. Tooth Brush and
ablutions kit, a small towel, medicines, drinking water, snacks like fox nuts, dried
poha and lunch for later. Sometimes I have seen her take a nap in the sun with her
a bag as pillow and her ample shawl as a blanket. She dresses warmly. Her face
has folds of untold stories.
I inferred, she works
in homes in shifts and comes to the park to rest, recuperate and nourish herself.
She unpacks and packs meticulously and chews her meals elegantly - daintily.
Seldom on the phone, though she has a basic phone, she must be in her 50s or
60s, it’s hard to tell with some faces.
Today, I go closer to her
and start a conversation, she empathizes with me like I empathize with her, we show each other some compassion
and then she pours a little out. The homes she works for don’t even offer her a
cup of water, let alone a cup of tea ( I have seen her fill a small jar with
water from the tap in the park). Yes she works as a cook in few houses in the
morning and noon shifts- cooking for them, however she was looking for some
work for the evening shift say at 5 pm or so. We exchanged numbers, me hoping
to invite her first for a meal when I cook and then look at some arrangement to
enhance her scope and quality of life with work or better conditions.
She has an easy beatific smile and an uncomplaining demeanour
and even when she talked about the beastly homes that didn’t offer her
anything ( water, food , place to rest),
in this beastly and bitter winter which was bitterly cold, perhaps the coldest
I am told in 70 years. She, left me, with admiration and beginning of
a new friendship on Women’s day.
