Indians who employed Ethiopian
maids started teaching them the Indian methods, customs and culture. The POLY
Campus of Bahirdar University had an English faculty named Sulochana Madam. She
was irked at her maid. Her maid was stylish and hep but did not take a bath on
a daily basis.
Sulochana madam kept on harping
on the fact that it is essential to take a daily bath. There were two reasons
as to why some Ethiopians in Bahirdar would not take a daily bath. One was the scarcity
of water and second was due to the beautiful weather, people hardly broke into
a sweat. May be it was felt that taking
a bath once in three days or once in a week was enough.
Sulochana madam’s maid listened to her in rapt attention. Sulochana madam was at her eloquent best “For the best hygiene you need to take a bath daily. Take me for instance, I bathe three times a day”
To drive the point home Sulochana madam dramatically announced “In the morning,
afternoon and in the evening”. Her maid’s eyes widened in surprise “Oh, oh, why
so many times, madam? What is that you do, that is so dirty, that you have to
take a bath three times a day?!” Sulochana madam almost fainted!
That weekend she was throwing a
party. She carefully took out her prized possession - The one
kg of Tamarind that she had carefully brought from India. The same tamarind
that she jealously guarded from the other Indian families.
The same tamarind for which there
were impassionate pleas from other Indians. She had listened with an iron heart
when reports of other Indian families almost breaking down and Indians almost quitting
jobs due to lack of precious tamarind were recited to her.
Sulochana madam had a burning
desire, she wanted to throw a ‘party of all parties’. Her party should be the
talking point in entire Bahirdar. She got up early in the morning and took a
bath (what else).
A surprise was waiting. Her maid
too made an appearance and she smelt of Jasmine and roses. Sulochana madam
was thrilled. She mentally patted herself on her shoulder. “I am a great teacher,
see even my maid has started to change”. She wanted to sing and dance.
Checking her happiness and exuberance,
she handed over almost a half kg of precious tamarind and told her maid “Here,
this is the most precious ingredient of all. It is not available in Ethiopia. I
want you to clean it. We are going to make pullihora (the yellow rice a Indian
delicacy and mostly served only for festivals and in temples)”.
Her Ethiopian maid sagely nodded
her head. She went to the kitchen and made herself busy. She made a thorough job
of cleaning the tamarind. Infact, a too thorough job! She very meticulously washed
the poor tamarind again and again and had repeatedly flushed the juice down the
kitchen drain. What was left was a sodden pulp. Her maid wondered “Crazy Indians,
what would madam do with this soggy pulp. No smell or nothing tasty”. Shrugging
her shapely shoulders, she did what was told.
Meanwhile Sulochana Madam got
dressed. She went to the kitchen and almost fainted (Sulochana madam was becoming
quite an expert when it comes to almost fainting). What she saw was a scene
from a horror movie. Her precious
tamarind was a soggy mess! The situation was beyond repair. It was simply a river
too far across to cross. And the bridge across was washed away!
What went wrong? Unknown and unexplained
to the maid it is the tamarind juice that is continuously squeezed out of the tamarind
and the pulp is simply thrown away. The maid did exactly the reverse. Threw out
all the juice and retained the pulp!
Sulochana madam was scarred for
life. She served her contract and left. She was never the same bubbling persona
that she was before the Tamarind Tragedy. She had a permanent hurt, bemused expression that never left her
face. It was as if she stared at death and came out alive. Experiences of that
sort either make a person enlightened or impact negatively. I am sorry to say
that it affected Sulochana madam very deeply. She felt as if the entire world
conspired against her! Madam, take a bow, you have become a legend among
Indian Teachers in Bahirdar!
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