My cousin who stays in nearby Kalakshetra Road, told me of an incident in her flat complex.
There are 40 flats in the compound and there would be thieves on the prowl at night.
My cousin's family used to live on the ground floor flat, having a good veiw of the outside areas through all their windows.
One night past 1 a.m., they were all woken up by shouts and sounds from outside. They got up and saw a burgler who was trying to flee from the clutches of the security guard. Some residents had by then come out and tried to catch the thief.
But no one was really able to catch him. It was as if they were all playing, 'catch, catch' with him. He was bare-bodied except for a pair of gloves covering his hands and his underwear. The rest of the body shone in the dark. He had applied oil all over his body!
The burgler seemed very cool about the whole thing. He was sure he will never get caught as he would literally 'slip' out of their hands by being well-oiled. He just jumped over the paraphet wall and was off in the dark in no time. This one seemed aware of the occupational hazard of getting caught but what a brilliant idea to evade it!
When I heard of this, I wondered about these strange, but very clever techniques the burglers use to escape getting caught.
In fact, a burgler has to be smarter than us ordinary folks, to succeed in his nocturnal (mis)adventures.
Mahalakshmi.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Making of the Sambar, Secretly!
This event took place nearly 15 years ago but remains fresh as ever due to the fear factor!!
My husband and myself always used to visit his sister's house in nearby Thiruvanmiyur area, once every week, when we used to buy vegetables from the shandy outside the ancient Marundeeshwarar temple.
His sister had gone out that day. Her kids, my husband, his brother were passing time until she called up to say she will be delayed by a few more hours.
Usually I don't go into others' kitchens as a principle, as many women including me, have reservations about others working in our kitchens when we are not there.
But on this occassion, all the men were hungry to the core and over the phone my sister-in-law requested me to do something about it.
It was pretty late in the evening and it had to be dinner. So I took out some vegetables which we had got for ourselves and started preparing a vegetable fry, sambar, rasam and a curd dish. Of all the dishes the sambar was an elaborate one as we have to have some cooked lentils. As that would take even longer I tried another varient of sambar where we can roast the dry lentils, alongwith other spices, grind it and add it to the cooked vegetables of our choice alongwith the tamarind pulp.
Usually I add onions and tomato, some green corriander leaves, some sesame seeds besides the usual dals, red chillies, fenugreek seeds, aesofotida to add flavour to the sambar. A bit of rice flour would thicken it nicely too.
The vegetables were all ready and cooked with the tamarind pulp. The last step in the last dish was to grind the paste and tip it in so I started grinding the spices.
Since I was not used to the mixer-grinder there, the paste was under pressure after a while. The lid, inspite of my holding it tightly while the grinding was on, gave way and a quarter of the paste flew in all directions on the wall, on the shelf nearby holding her boxes of this and that. My heart skipped a beat. I was shell shocked.
I am always careful while I am cooking and to date I have never spilled a dish, broken a glass, been careless while transfering oil from the pouch to the container. When such was my record I din't want to appear as a careless person to anyone and that too in their domain!
I knew I never wanted my sister-in-law to see the mess I had made of her kitchen and there the men were hungry and waiting for things to come on to the table!
The first priority was to get the sambar going and side by side I started wiping away the mess in a mad hurry. It seemed like ages before the cleaning job got over. My ears were alert for any sound at the door!! God, how I was multi-tasking in those few minutes. I think that was one of the fastest clean up jobs I have ever attempted anywhere due to the fear factor. I was cleaning up like mad, searching for places where it could have splashed.
I put all the dishes on the table, they all began to praise the sambar so much. The kids were saying why doesn't mamma make the sambar like yours.
Then my sister-in-law came home. She also sat down to eat. When she tasted the sambar she said 'this is out of this world, it's too good'. I was happy to hear that comment.
She is a good cook herself. That was the only day she was not home to welcome us and feed us. As that is what she usually does.
She went to the kitchen and saw the freshly washed and wiped clean walls and was saying that she never does such thorough cleaning after cooking a meal! Only if she knew what a mess I made due to the mishandling of her grinder, she would have commented differently.
Some things are best left unsaid so I never told her about the mess-up till this day. Now the secret is out in the open.
Cheers.
Mahalakshmi
My husband and myself always used to visit his sister's house in nearby Thiruvanmiyur area, once every week, when we used to buy vegetables from the shandy outside the ancient Marundeeshwarar temple.
His sister had gone out that day. Her kids, my husband, his brother were passing time until she called up to say she will be delayed by a few more hours.
Usually I don't go into others' kitchens as a principle, as many women including me, have reservations about others working in our kitchens when we are not there.
But on this occassion, all the men were hungry to the core and over the phone my sister-in-law requested me to do something about it.
It was pretty late in the evening and it had to be dinner. So I took out some vegetables which we had got for ourselves and started preparing a vegetable fry, sambar, rasam and a curd dish. Of all the dishes the sambar was an elaborate one as we have to have some cooked lentils. As that would take even longer I tried another varient of sambar where we can roast the dry lentils, alongwith other spices, grind it and add it to the cooked vegetables of our choice alongwith the tamarind pulp.
Usually I add onions and tomato, some green corriander leaves, some sesame seeds besides the usual dals, red chillies, fenugreek seeds, aesofotida to add flavour to the sambar. A bit of rice flour would thicken it nicely too.
The vegetables were all ready and cooked with the tamarind pulp. The last step in the last dish was to grind the paste and tip it in so I started grinding the spices.
Since I was not used to the mixer-grinder there, the paste was under pressure after a while. The lid, inspite of my holding it tightly while the grinding was on, gave way and a quarter of the paste flew in all directions on the wall, on the shelf nearby holding her boxes of this and that. My heart skipped a beat. I was shell shocked.
I am always careful while I am cooking and to date I have never spilled a dish, broken a glass, been careless while transfering oil from the pouch to the container. When such was my record I din't want to appear as a careless person to anyone and that too in their domain!
I knew I never wanted my sister-in-law to see the mess I had made of her kitchen and there the men were hungry and waiting for things to come on to the table!
The first priority was to get the sambar going and side by side I started wiping away the mess in a mad hurry. It seemed like ages before the cleaning job got over. My ears were alert for any sound at the door!! God, how I was multi-tasking in those few minutes. I think that was one of the fastest clean up jobs I have ever attempted anywhere due to the fear factor. I was cleaning up like mad, searching for places where it could have splashed.
I put all the dishes on the table, they all began to praise the sambar so much. The kids were saying why doesn't mamma make the sambar like yours.
Then my sister-in-law came home. She also sat down to eat. When she tasted the sambar she said 'this is out of this world, it's too good'. I was happy to hear that comment.
She is a good cook herself. That was the only day she was not home to welcome us and feed us. As that is what she usually does.
She went to the kitchen and saw the freshly washed and wiped clean walls and was saying that she never does such thorough cleaning after cooking a meal! Only if she knew what a mess I made due to the mishandling of her grinder, she would have commented differently.
Some things are best left unsaid so I never told her about the mess-up till this day. Now the secret is out in the open.
Cheers.
Mahalakshmi
Friday, October 22, 2010
To Make Something Of Life
I wrote this blog much earlier but could not finish it for one reason or the other. Here it is completed and ready for your reading pleasure.
******
I got talking to a supervisor in a hotel recently.
He was in a mood to tell his lifestory to me so I heard it out. It was interesting though in the beginning I was apprehensive of spending so much time.
He came from a village 20 years ago in search of a hotel job and settled down for good.
He was one among a group of 4 teenage friends who had failed their 10 standard exams and knew not how to spend their free time in the village.
A villager who was working at a Chennai hotel had come visiting their village, happened to see them hanging around, wasting their time and asked them whether they were interested in taking up a hotel job. They all jumped at the idea and came with him to the city.
They were introduced to the personnel manager of a star hotel, who in turn took them to the housekeeping department. Hotels are always short of room boys so they were taken in as temporary contract workers. They were trained in every kind of manual labor at site. Before the first month got over, 3 of them took to their heels not able to take the hard work, restrictions and strict supervision anymore. The 4th one had too many responsibilities back home and had no other choice but to stick it out though with a lot of reluctance.
He described what his work was in those initial years.
He was to clean the drivers’ toilets.
After he learnt the ropes, he was given upkeep of public areas like garden, swimming pool, lobby, etc.
3 years later he graduated to do guest rooms under the strict guidance of a senior room boy from whom he learnt a lot. After an year he started doing the guest rooms on his own. By that time his salary also had improved and he was able to send enough for the family to build a small house in the village.
He went to the village after a long gap and felt the respect and affection of villagers who saw him as a hero returning back victorious after a battle. Only he knew what struggles he had undergone to resist temptations of running away from his job like his friends.
He met his 3 friends and they were not doing so well in the village. Actually each one felt they could have stayed back like him and done well for themselves and their families. But they had run away, afraid of hard work and harsher conditions.
Later he moved to better jobs to settle down as a supervisor in an international hotel in Chennai with a good pay. He is married and has two kids. He is educating both his kids in convent schools as he feels the importance of the English language having picked up enough to interact with many international guests. He was saying rather proudly that his daughter scores the highest in English in her class.
He then asked me to see the Tamil movie ‘Angaadi Theru’ which is almost like his own story of struggles.
He said he cried a lot seeing that movie. Though I am no regular watcher of movies for the past so many years now, I watched it and felt how the storyline must have touched the lives and struggles of many lower level working population who have to stay huddled together on rooftops of complexes where they work with not many facilities to boast of. But life goes on for them too. For them this life is better than the one they led back home. They are heroes when they visit their villages. Their grooming is stylish, their dress is stylish, they display certain culture and daring and they have seen the city life. They become role models for success in their villages. This gives them a high.
The only thing which makes all of us committed to something in life is to be looked upon as a successful person by our own. This is the motivation which drives all of us not to chuck up a job even under the harshest of work conditions.
Cheers.
Mahalakshmi
******
I got talking to a supervisor in a hotel recently.
He was in a mood to tell his lifestory to me so I heard it out. It was interesting though in the beginning I was apprehensive of spending so much time.
He came from a village 20 years ago in search of a hotel job and settled down for good.
He was one among a group of 4 teenage friends who had failed their 10 standard exams and knew not how to spend their free time in the village.
A villager who was working at a Chennai hotel had come visiting their village, happened to see them hanging around, wasting their time and asked them whether they were interested in taking up a hotel job. They all jumped at the idea and came with him to the city.
They were introduced to the personnel manager of a star hotel, who in turn took them to the housekeeping department. Hotels are always short of room boys so they were taken in as temporary contract workers. They were trained in every kind of manual labor at site. Before the first month got over, 3 of them took to their heels not able to take the hard work, restrictions and strict supervision anymore. The 4th one had too many responsibilities back home and had no other choice but to stick it out though with a lot of reluctance.
He described what his work was in those initial years.
He was to clean the drivers’ toilets.
After he learnt the ropes, he was given upkeep of public areas like garden, swimming pool, lobby, etc.
3 years later he graduated to do guest rooms under the strict guidance of a senior room boy from whom he learnt a lot. After an year he started doing the guest rooms on his own. By that time his salary also had improved and he was able to send enough for the family to build a small house in the village.
He went to the village after a long gap and felt the respect and affection of villagers who saw him as a hero returning back victorious after a battle. Only he knew what struggles he had undergone to resist temptations of running away from his job like his friends.
He met his 3 friends and they were not doing so well in the village. Actually each one felt they could have stayed back like him and done well for themselves and their families. But they had run away, afraid of hard work and harsher conditions.
Later he moved to better jobs to settle down as a supervisor in an international hotel in Chennai with a good pay. He is married and has two kids. He is educating both his kids in convent schools as he feels the importance of the English language having picked up enough to interact with many international guests. He was saying rather proudly that his daughter scores the highest in English in her class.
He then asked me to see the Tamil movie ‘Angaadi Theru’ which is almost like his own story of struggles.
He said he cried a lot seeing that movie. Though I am no regular watcher of movies for the past so many years now, I watched it and felt how the storyline must have touched the lives and struggles of many lower level working population who have to stay huddled together on rooftops of complexes where they work with not many facilities to boast of. But life goes on for them too. For them this life is better than the one they led back home. They are heroes when they visit their villages. Their grooming is stylish, their dress is stylish, they display certain culture and daring and they have seen the city life. They become role models for success in their villages. This gives them a high.
The only thing which makes all of us committed to something in life is to be looked upon as a successful person by our own. This is the motivation which drives all of us not to chuck up a job even under the harshest of work conditions.
Cheers.
Mahalakshmi
Monday, October 18, 2010
The Making Of Ericcha Koottu
The past ten days of festival did have its fallouts in terms of various kinds of dishes beginning with sambar, koottu, mor kozhambu, rasam, poriyal, avial, etc., left over in small quantities over a period of time. Stored in the fridge safely though.
My mom was asking me to make an ericcha koottu out of all those leftovers for today.
The best vessel for such purpose was at hand - our new kalchatty.
She was telling me about how the leftovers from a big lunch on festivals or occassions, was emptied into the kalchatti and allowed to simmer away for hours in those days.
It would be mixture of just about all the dishes without adding anything, not even salt, as all the dishes would contain their own set of spices and ingredients like salt, coconut paste, spices, oil, etc. This was called 'ericcha koottu' where ericcha in Tamil means to 'heat' and koottu would mean 'a mixture of'.
So you got a new dish just by combining all you have as leftovers and re-heating them all up in a thick bottomed vessel, preferably a kalchatti/kal chatty. With time it would thicken without getting burnt in the bottom.
Usually the next day would be rest day for the women of the house.
Plain rice and the ericcha koottu would taste divine after a heavy feast.
This was perhaps done for the following reasons:
To take a much needed rest the next day after a function or festival which usually involved long hours at the kitchen in preparing several courses for lunch and dinner.
The leftovers were never wasted nor thrown away. Heating all the leftovers din't require any special talent. Moreover re-heating would ensure that all those dishes never got spoilt because those were the days when refrigerators were unheard of. Heating each dish separately never made any sense due to maybe small quantities of leftovers. Combining them all would give a good quantity enough to feed an entire family.
Distribution of leftovers was not considered good except to give it off to beggars who would come visiting homes for food on a regular basis in those days. Then there were unwritten rules about when to feed such people. They were never given food before the guests and hosts ate. They were never fed after sunset either. They were given food only after the last of the guests had left.
With so many restraints no wonder some clever housewife thought of this way to re-use so many dishes to save her energy and time the next day instead of wasting so much food on one hand and preparing fresh food all over again, on the other.
The 'ericcha Kootu' is a 'recycled' tasty food!
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi
My mom was asking me to make an ericcha koottu out of all those leftovers for today.
The best vessel for such purpose was at hand - our new kalchatty.
She was telling me about how the leftovers from a big lunch on festivals or occassions, was emptied into the kalchatti and allowed to simmer away for hours in those days.
It would be mixture of just about all the dishes without adding anything, not even salt, as all the dishes would contain their own set of spices and ingredients like salt, coconut paste, spices, oil, etc. This was called 'ericcha koottu' where ericcha in Tamil means to 'heat' and koottu would mean 'a mixture of'.
So you got a new dish just by combining all you have as leftovers and re-heating them all up in a thick bottomed vessel, preferably a kalchatti/kal chatty. With time it would thicken without getting burnt in the bottom.
Usually the next day would be rest day for the women of the house.
Plain rice and the ericcha koottu would taste divine after a heavy feast.
This was perhaps done for the following reasons:
To take a much needed rest the next day after a function or festival which usually involved long hours at the kitchen in preparing several courses for lunch and dinner.
The leftovers were never wasted nor thrown away. Heating all the leftovers din't require any special talent. Moreover re-heating would ensure that all those dishes never got spoilt because those were the days when refrigerators were unheard of. Heating each dish separately never made any sense due to maybe small quantities of leftovers. Combining them all would give a good quantity enough to feed an entire family.
Distribution of leftovers was not considered good except to give it off to beggars who would come visiting homes for food on a regular basis in those days. Then there were unwritten rules about when to feed such people. They were never given food before the guests and hosts ate. They were never fed after sunset either. They were given food only after the last of the guests had left.
With so many restraints no wonder some clever housewife thought of this way to re-use so many dishes to save her energy and time the next day instead of wasting so much food on one hand and preparing fresh food all over again, on the other.
The 'ericcha Kootu' is a 'recycled' tasty food!
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi
Responsible Boy
This boy aged 21 years is a very distant relative of mine.
He studied well enough through out school and college in Chennai.
His family has been in a financial mess for the past 20 years so they all had to depend on their maternal uncles for each and everything in India. His uncles would repatriate amounts to support their family and agreed to finance his study abroad once he was accepted at some university.
Once he finished his engineering last year, he applied to a university in Texas for his M.Sc. and got accepted. It is a 2 year course but could be finished in 1.5 years too.
This boy struggled with preparing food on his own. Struggled with a non-cooperative (a foreigner) room mate who would not bother about any team work for upkeeping their shared accommodation.
Most of his time was spent at the university. Many tempted him to go out and enjoy weekends and special holidays. But he was determined to finish his course within 1 year and get on with finding a job soon. His philosophy was to work very hard in the present as there was always time to enjoy once he passed his exams and landed some job.
He din't just confine himself to his usual subjects and courses. He enrolled himself in 7 different computer courses as he wanted to learn anything in computers. He din't have that opportunity in India while doing his engineering graduation. He must have had to work really hard.
He was able to finish all the courses including the computer related ones too inside of 1 year!
His is a story every parent would dream of for their own kids.
Why did he take computer courses all of a sudden?
It seems, he checked out the campus interviews which were taking place when he just joined his M.Sc. course last year. He came to know that companies were happy to engage people who had computer language and applications skill.
Therefore, he took those computer courses to stand a better chance to land himself a job in USA sooner than later.
During the past one year he had to be admitted in the hospital's ICU for frozen feet, fever, etc., because he din't either have money or time to buy those winter shoes. Most times he went without proper food too which is bad but he has managed to cross all these expected obstacles in an alien land all by himself.
After successfully finishing off all his courses, he started applying to companies nearby. He got selected in an upstart IT company in Texas, which was willing to pay him $95,000p.a. Then came a call from Microsoft, Seattle.
Microsoft flew him to and fro for the interview. The interview went on for 7 hours. He was offered a job with an initial pay of $83,000p.a.
After thinking a lot, he decided to join Microsoft for reasons of job security.
He is overjoyed and so is his family. His family is relieved and very happy.
His single minded focus to work hard in the present and postpone all his temptations to enjoy outings, surfing the net for hours, etc., at the cost of his course work has finally paid off.
Time is the essence and this boy has understood the importance of time.
Focus and time management are two things which all of us need to concentrate on if we take up any project.
We may come across many ups and downs yet we have to keep on at it until we finish what we have taken up.
We can save money, we can accumulate materials things in our cupboards. Unfortunately we can never open a savings bank account for time and spend it later.
Now this young boy can relax and enjoy life from now on without worrying too much about finances anymore.
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
He studied well enough through out school and college in Chennai.
His family has been in a financial mess for the past 20 years so they all had to depend on their maternal uncles for each and everything in India. His uncles would repatriate amounts to support their family and agreed to finance his study abroad once he was accepted at some university.
Once he finished his engineering last year, he applied to a university in Texas for his M.Sc. and got accepted. It is a 2 year course but could be finished in 1.5 years too.
This boy struggled with preparing food on his own. Struggled with a non-cooperative (a foreigner) room mate who would not bother about any team work for upkeeping their shared accommodation.
Most of his time was spent at the university. Many tempted him to go out and enjoy weekends and special holidays. But he was determined to finish his course within 1 year and get on with finding a job soon. His philosophy was to work very hard in the present as there was always time to enjoy once he passed his exams and landed some job.
He din't just confine himself to his usual subjects and courses. He enrolled himself in 7 different computer courses as he wanted to learn anything in computers. He din't have that opportunity in India while doing his engineering graduation. He must have had to work really hard.
He was able to finish all the courses including the computer related ones too inside of 1 year!
His is a story every parent would dream of for their own kids.
Why did he take computer courses all of a sudden?
It seems, he checked out the campus interviews which were taking place when he just joined his M.Sc. course last year. He came to know that companies were happy to engage people who had computer language and applications skill.
Therefore, he took those computer courses to stand a better chance to land himself a job in USA sooner than later.
During the past one year he had to be admitted in the hospital's ICU for frozen feet, fever, etc., because he din't either have money or time to buy those winter shoes. Most times he went without proper food too which is bad but he has managed to cross all these expected obstacles in an alien land all by himself.
After successfully finishing off all his courses, he started applying to companies nearby. He got selected in an upstart IT company in Texas, which was willing to pay him $95,000p.a. Then came a call from Microsoft, Seattle.
Microsoft flew him to and fro for the interview. The interview went on for 7 hours. He was offered a job with an initial pay of $83,000p.a.
After thinking a lot, he decided to join Microsoft for reasons of job security.
He is overjoyed and so is his family. His family is relieved and very happy.
His single minded focus to work hard in the present and postpone all his temptations to enjoy outings, surfing the net for hours, etc., at the cost of his course work has finally paid off.
Time is the essence and this boy has understood the importance of time.
Focus and time management are two things which all of us need to concentrate on if we take up any project.
We may come across many ups and downs yet we have to keep on at it until we finish what we have taken up.
We can save money, we can accumulate materials things in our cupboards. Unfortunately we can never open a savings bank account for time and spend it later.
Now this young boy can relax and enjoy life from now on without worrying too much about finances anymore.
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
The Tale Of An Old Ladies' Cycle
Since the past 10 months an old ladies' cycle has been parked inside our compound. All of us used to pass by wondering to whom it could belong, but none had the inclination nor the time to question, so it stood there braving the sun's heat and several downpours. It was locked. It had punctured tyres and the brake system had given way.
Once our complex became clean with a fresh coat of paint, this cycle was an eye-sore. So an elderly couple who walk around inside our compound began urging me to dispose it off to some raddiwala or better still donate it to their servant maid's daughter who is learning to cycle from the past couple of months.
As I am the secretary of the flats' association, I asked around whether it belonged to any of them. I got answers from all except one family (who had two little boys, the lady would never step outside her home leave alone ride a bike and her husband rode a motorbike). Also they were away for a couple of days when the pressure to dispose it off mounted too much to bear anymore. I am busy too with my work yet I could have waited for them to come back, called and enquired with them too and then disposed it off. I cursed myself for not doing that. But I had the presence of mind to make it a conditional gift.
I decided that the young school-going girl who comes to sweep our stairs and compound should be preferred over an individual's maid servant. I informed those present and asked the girl's mother to take it away, repair it and use it but with one condition, should anyone come and claim it later as their, then they should be ready to part with it. They agreed to my condition and took it away. Got it repaired. The girl seemed so happy and would ride the bicycle to school and to the shops nearby to buy things for her mother. A week passed this way.
The family whose cycle it was, noticed its absence and wanted it back at any cost since it was not theirs either, but belonged to the lady's sister who got it as a gift from her late father. Though all these months it was gathering dust and never used even once, yet now, she desperately wanted to use it to go to the library nearby, etc.
I was pained as it involved getting it back through constant follow ups with the girl's mother. The girl just refused to come to work in our complex fearing our reminders to hand back the cycle which she had come to enjoy riding so much. Could understand her feelings too as she is a very young girl and how difficult it must be to part with a gift even if it were to be a conditional one.
I had to assure this girl that I shall see about purchasing another one for her if she returned this one to us. The affected family also joined me in saying they will also contribute towards purchase of a second hand cycle for her.
She kept dodging for 3 days but today she reluctantly got it back. I was overjoyed that one part of my job got over.
The other part is to search for a good second hand ladies' cycle from some local source and gift it to this poor girl.
Cheers.
Mahalakshmi
Once our complex became clean with a fresh coat of paint, this cycle was an eye-sore. So an elderly couple who walk around inside our compound began urging me to dispose it off to some raddiwala or better still donate it to their servant maid's daughter who is learning to cycle from the past couple of months.
As I am the secretary of the flats' association, I asked around whether it belonged to any of them. I got answers from all except one family (who had two little boys, the lady would never step outside her home leave alone ride a bike and her husband rode a motorbike). Also they were away for a couple of days when the pressure to dispose it off mounted too much to bear anymore. I am busy too with my work yet I could have waited for them to come back, called and enquired with them too and then disposed it off. I cursed myself for not doing that. But I had the presence of mind to make it a conditional gift.
I decided that the young school-going girl who comes to sweep our stairs and compound should be preferred over an individual's maid servant. I informed those present and asked the girl's mother to take it away, repair it and use it but with one condition, should anyone come and claim it later as their, then they should be ready to part with it. They agreed to my condition and took it away. Got it repaired. The girl seemed so happy and would ride the bicycle to school and to the shops nearby to buy things for her mother. A week passed this way.
The family whose cycle it was, noticed its absence and wanted it back at any cost since it was not theirs either, but belonged to the lady's sister who got it as a gift from her late father. Though all these months it was gathering dust and never used even once, yet now, she desperately wanted to use it to go to the library nearby, etc.
I was pained as it involved getting it back through constant follow ups with the girl's mother. The girl just refused to come to work in our complex fearing our reminders to hand back the cycle which she had come to enjoy riding so much. Could understand her feelings too as she is a very young girl and how difficult it must be to part with a gift even if it were to be a conditional one.
I had to assure this girl that I shall see about purchasing another one for her if she returned this one to us. The affected family also joined me in saying they will also contribute towards purchase of a second hand cycle for her.
She kept dodging for 3 days but today she reluctantly got it back. I was overjoyed that one part of my job got over.
The other part is to search for a good second hand ladies' cycle from some local source and gift it to this poor girl.
Cheers.
Mahalakshmi
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