A SINCERE DILEMMA

A SINCERE DILEMMA.

Sanhita, a young girl, living alone in the bopping city of Mumbai finds herself in a fix when she stares at the pile of dirty laundry. She has just returned home after a night of tremendous creative flow at her friend’s place. The otherwise docile girl has shown her valor all of a sudden and became the cynosure of the night. The friendly discussions led to a serious topic of world affairs. She had violently protested against the capitalists about which she came to the conclusion that it has eaten away human morals. She was touted as being cynical towards the bourgeoisie; a class she seldom refers to as being occasionally humanely corrupt. At the end of the debate her friends viewed her as an aggressive communist, faintly siding the infamous utopian theory of a classless society. With the debate heating up, she finally lost her temper and as a salvation she took up the brush and painted a life size portrait of the Che Guevara directly on the wall. No one dared to comment or hold her views in contempt any longer.
She sits toying over the idea how to start cleaning up her place. The maid has been absent without a notice for over two weeks. She received her last month’s salary and two days later she is absent from work. Sanhita looks at her paint splattered t-shirt and shorts. She is running out of money and laundry is expensive in the posh neighbourhood. “Let her come back and I will throw her out of job. That will teach her a lesson.” She even thought of deducting her salary. “No that will lead to an argument. I don’t want to face it.” She is angry with the mess around and willingly blamed her maid. “It is time for a decision”.
The door opens and she looks around. The maid has silently got inside. She always had her own keys. An angry Sanhita refuses to look at her and she keeps on checking her facebook. Half an hour later, the maid enters her room. Sanhita, without looking at her hardens her voice, “ Where have you been?” The maid replies feebly, “I was sick”. She looks up and sees tired eyes; the white of the eyes are stained yellow. “ Can I lie down under the fan for a while?” the maid said. Sanhita nods and looks at her gently lying down. Somewhere the anger simply vanished; she could hear it falling to unknown depths. Sanhita creeps out of the room as she hears soft breathing. An hour later the maid gets up panicking, “ Why did not you call me earlier? I will be late.” Sanhita says, “ You can sleep if you like.” The maid smiles, “No. I have to go to work.” As the door shuts Sanhita goes to the kitchen to wash the coffee mug from which she was drinking earlier.