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Diwali, with all the celebrations, is a much looked forward to festival. But how does Diwali look from the POV of the women who clean our homes and do our mundane chores?
Maya got up early in the morning, and cooked food for her kids and hus
band. Packed the boxes and school bags for her children. Her husband would later wake them up and get them ready for school. She kissed the sleeping kids and left for work.
She worked in the society two kilometers away from where she lived.
Shikha madam would get very angry even if she was five minutes late. She would always say, “Time is important; if you don’t value time, you will never come up.” Maya never understood, how will she come up? There is no promotion for a maid.
Maya always dreaded and looked forward to the months of October and November.
She dreaded these months because of the Diwali cleaning that happens at every house. Shikha madam would give instructions about how much work should be done for the day. She would get very angry if all the work for the day was not done according to her plan. Maya tried telling her that this is not office work, and sometimes it can’t happen according to the plan, but Shikha, the vice president of an MNC would never understand.
Komal madam was very good but her mother-in-law was really a monster. She would make Maya clean the same place twice just to trouble her daughter in law and Maya, who work together to clean the house for Diwali.
Deepa madam had some problem, she keeps cleaning the same place again and again. She doesn’t like even a speck of dust. During Diwali, she becomes unbearable. She makes Maya clean and dust the same place at least five times.
Vani madam wants the house to be cleaned but she doesn’t like it if Maya uses a lot of soap or detergent. She is a miser. She does not even give the Diwali bonus.
The festival of Diwali really makes Maya really tired, she has to do double the work. But she looks forward to the festival because all the ladies give away a lot of unwanted stuff, for them, after cleaning the house. She gets a bonus too. She also gets sweets and crackers from Shikha madam.
She forgets all her pain when she sees her kids in new clothes, bursting the crackers and enjoying themselves.
She eagerly waits for next Diwali so she can see this happiness again.
A version of this was first published here.
Image source: a still from Nil Battey Sannata
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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