I have been on this site for over a year and I admit I wasn’t really an enthusiastic blogger. I was here just for the sake of it. Now that I know how to express myself through my writing, I can see clearly why people love to write. I was just going through an article in a newspaper titled “Write to be truly happy.” Researches at Kent University have found that expressive writing helps in improving a person’s happiness and satisfaction levels. Moreover, according to the researchers, practicing expressive writing is often associated with fewer health problems, decreased depression, an improved immune system and improved grades. So in short, the name of this site is apt “Progressive You.” Right now 900people as guests and 20 as members are online. All of us may not be bright and sparkly in our writings, but what unite us is the desire to write and the desire to express ourselves. And that in turn leads all of us to path of developing ourselves. Now who says we aren’t evolving?
Have you all heard the concept of the concept of “Arranged Marriages”? It’s very prevalent in India; I ain’t sure about the rest of the countries. Under this, the girls get to marry the guy that their parents have selected. Vice-versa. They know nothing about their partners, haven’t met before, nothing at all. They get to know after they are married to each other. It’s not like we can’t trust our parents to choose a guy to marry us off. But it’s weird altogether. If I were to opine on how I felt on this “arrangement”, it’s like somebody ordering a “take-out” at MacDonald’s. I know the food will be good, but I don’t know whether I will like it or whether it’s up to my taste. And Marriage ain’t as trivial as “take-outs”. Gosh, no!
We have a cleaning lady, Sonni and she stays in an apartment that is provided in our house. She is married, has a kid and is Indian Christian of origin. She might be as young as me, but looks younger because she is around four feet tall. Her husband is a security guard for some company and their daughter is three years old, pretty as an angel. They aren’t that well off, they are poor. Their marriage was an arranged one. It breaks my heart to look at her, because her husband is so abusive. They argue, almost once a week, on top of their voices. He is a drunkard and spends all the money that she earns on liquor. After these fights, she comes up crying and we console her, the best way we can. We want to report this to the Police. But she vehemently disagrees. According to her, once married to him, always married to him. We don’t want to go behind her back and report because then her husband will be thrown out of the house and it will be very difficult for her to manage the household. But it’s painful to see them like this. My heart goes to the poor kid, Sofia.
Sonni is very stoic, rarely talks and smiles. You may as well mistake her for being pretentious. I really wanted to help her and let her know that people care about her. Just because she is employed under us doesn’t mean we are heartless and only care about the services rendered to us. My mum and sister, they are teachers in a school. They get a lot of candies over there, which is passed down to me; all because Iam the youngest in the family, Iam still considered a kid. And I don’t really like those candies. They are very sweet and huge. So I keep collecting them. And I would like make a pouch and put them in it and give it to Sonni. The first time, she was bewildered, giving me the expression “Are you alright?” “It’s for your kid”, I would always say. But then later on she got used to it. These little acts of love actually won me her confidence. Hmm, actually won me her smiles. Even though I didn’t do anything special, gave her the things that I got. Mean, I know!
But yesterday was the day when I realized that I have managed to get to her. That she really trusts me and my family. Like about 6 in the evening the door bell rang. Sonni was standing there with Sofia (cute and coy as ever) and in one hand she had a box. It was Sofia’s birthday (I didn’t know that). And she had come to tell us that and give us some birthday cake and candies (not again, sigh!). Sonni looked so happy and excited. I have never seen her so much at ease, she looked peaceful and beautiful.
I may not be into active social work, but I do have a heart and I do care about what happens to people around me. Iam glad I cared about Sonni and didn’t give up on her. This I could have done easily. Even though what I did was not humongous but the look on her face when I opened the door was worth all!
