Radha was particularly happy today. It was a mild autumn afternoon. The air was fresh with a slight chill that could only be felt on the tip of the nose. The leaves had started to turn shades of orange, sienna and amber. It was the incidental beauty of autumn when each leaf turned into the colours of spring flower. Radha’s children were playing outside, under a tree and the sounds of their laughter and crackling of leaves when crushed under their feet, was music to her ear, along with occasional beating of the hammer. The final repairs on her house were about to finish. Radha had helped her father-in-law and her husband all along the process from planning out the date of repairs, arranging the material and until today. Now they were fixing one last section of the façade of the house – a 6ft x8ft piece, which went on the front wall. Her father-in-law was inspecting it before it went on to finish the house-repairs.
Radha offered her husband water and said “ I’m so grateful the work is over before cold winters set in. I was worried about our children spending time in the house in its former condition.” “it was all possible because of you, esp. the money we saved on repairs due to your careful planning” spoke her husband, as he looked at her face, the slight wrinkles that smiled with her smile. The wrinkles that defined the smile in her kajal smudged eyes.
Her husband smiled at her and returned to work.
Radha watched her kids play near the house; they had mud all over them. An antic, which usually upsets Radha, did not bother her today. She was way too happy about what was being accomplished. She had requested her husband and father-in-law over a month ago for weatherproofing the house for the chilly winters.
Radha’s husband interrupted her trail of thoughts as he asked her to help hold the 6ft x 8 ft frame in the centre, while he and his father nailed it on both sides to the rest of the structure. The 6ftx8ft frame was the front wall. The side walls were 6ftx6ft. The walls were wooden frame with plastic sheets tied and nailed on them. The plastic sheets were sturdy and durable. They were from the sacks used to sell dry cement and sand in, which was used for construction of permanent brick and mortar houses for most city dwellers. Radha got them from the construction site where she worked as a labourer. Usually the construction contractor sold the empty sacks for Rs. 15 each, but Radha got ten of them in exchange of one day’s wage. She thought it was a fabulous deal to get 10 empty sacks from the construction contractor , because if she went to the kabadi wala(junk dealer) he would charge her Rs 18 or Rs 20 per sack. For the rich it was the contents of the sacks that built their massive dwellings, For construction labourers like Radha the empty sacks were as good as cement to build her tiny box house. After all it sheltered her family- their dreams and disappointments.
(wrote it last autumn…. maybe now is the time to share)
nehapratap 