After 3 months of hard work, frustration, lots of mails and talks, a frustrated ultimatum, I received my first salary. Well, technically second. My first time was when I earned $21 dollars through online jobs, by writing articles. However, the relief I felt after seeing Rs. 49600 sitting in my account, could not match anything else. A lot of problems could now be addressed. A lot of uncertainties were put to rest.
I went to the Domino's outlet opposite my colony, after work. The lady behind the counter, took my order with her well-trained and practiced politeness. After ordering a hefty meal for one person, and leaving the staff flabbergasted at my capacity to eat, I happily sat down, partly watching a cricket match on the LCD TV and partly lost in thoughts.
At last when my food arrived and I started tucking in, I realized it was not just the staff, but also the people around me who seemed amazed by how much one girl can eat. However, I was oblivious to all of this most of the time and I concentrated on licking up every drop of cheese that was destined to be mine.
After a while, the couple sitting at the table opposite to me left and a man came scurrying, armed with a wet sponge and a cleaner solution. He might have been in his late 30s or early 40s, and was covered in a uniform that was covered in stains of all colors of the spectrum.
What particularly had drawn my attention from the divine cheese to him was the defined frown on his face. I saw an expression in his eyes, as he picked up a crumpled tissue, which was as colored as his uniform. I couldn't quite put a description to that expression. He quietly cleaned the whole table up, set the chairs in their default positions and left after collecting the waste.
The more I thought about what that expression was, the sadder I felt. Here I was, sitting and celebrating the reward for my hard work, when truly the "hard work" put in by me was nothing compared to this man's work. Cleaning the tables spotless, collecting everyone's left-over waste, standing and keeping a hawk-watch on the tables, so as to appear there as soon as the customers get up from their table......and be invisible for the rest of the time formed his job description, whereas mine meant 2 hours of productive work a day, for 5 days a week and being oblivious to other people's sitting schedules.
It was not fair. Not to me. But at the same time, I had no idea what I can ever do to even begin to understand the frustrations that goes in the head of people like him. The look on his face as he moved around cleaning tables, seemed to say that he too deserved to sit on one of those tables and laugh away with no care in the world. He too should be able to spend more than Rs. 500 on a one-time meal and not worry about if he can afford anything else after that.
As I finished the last bits of my celebration-meal, I saw the boxes and tissues I was leaving behind, which would eventually form a part of his pay cheque. I made a shabby attempt to ease the pain of his job, by carefully putting all the garbage in one box and by collecting all the crumbs in it. As I slid out, I turned behind and saw he had again punctually arrived and was cleaning my mess. I turned to leave, with a sigh of relief, for finally having been able to spend my money without a care in the world...and saw him dump the garbage as I left, with a sigh of frustration, for the countless reasons that I could never comprehend.
I went to the Domino's outlet opposite my colony, after work. The lady behind the counter, took my order with her well-trained and practiced politeness. After ordering a hefty meal for one person, and leaving the staff flabbergasted at my capacity to eat, I happily sat down, partly watching a cricket match on the LCD TV and partly lost in thoughts.
At last when my food arrived and I started tucking in, I realized it was not just the staff, but also the people around me who seemed amazed by how much one girl can eat. However, I was oblivious to all of this most of the time and I concentrated on licking up every drop of cheese that was destined to be mine.
After a while, the couple sitting at the table opposite to me left and a man came scurrying, armed with a wet sponge and a cleaner solution. He might have been in his late 30s or early 40s, and was covered in a uniform that was covered in stains of all colors of the spectrum.
What particularly had drawn my attention from the divine cheese to him was the defined frown on his face. I saw an expression in his eyes, as he picked up a crumpled tissue, which was as colored as his uniform. I couldn't quite put a description to that expression. He quietly cleaned the whole table up, set the chairs in their default positions and left after collecting the waste.
The more I thought about what that expression was, the sadder I felt. Here I was, sitting and celebrating the reward for my hard work, when truly the "hard work" put in by me was nothing compared to this man's work. Cleaning the tables spotless, collecting everyone's left-over waste, standing and keeping a hawk-watch on the tables, so as to appear there as soon as the customers get up from their table......and be invisible for the rest of the time formed his job description, whereas mine meant 2 hours of productive work a day, for 5 days a week and being oblivious to other people's sitting schedules.
It was not fair. Not to me. But at the same time, I had no idea what I can ever do to even begin to understand the frustrations that goes in the head of people like him. The look on his face as he moved around cleaning tables, seemed to say that he too deserved to sit on one of those tables and laugh away with no care in the world. He too should be able to spend more than Rs. 500 on a one-time meal and not worry about if he can afford anything else after that.
As I finished the last bits of my celebration-meal, I saw the boxes and tissues I was leaving behind, which would eventually form a part of his pay cheque. I made a shabby attempt to ease the pain of his job, by carefully putting all the garbage in one box and by collecting all the crumbs in it. As I slid out, I turned behind and saw he had again punctually arrived and was cleaning my mess. I turned to leave, with a sigh of relief, for finally having been able to spend my money without a care in the world...and saw him dump the garbage as I left, with a sigh of frustration, for the countless reasons that I could never comprehend.
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