The Delhi Girl Explores

Dadi looked exhausted. She sat on a tiny stool called a chalk, and said,”From the time you get up to the time you sleep, I don’t sit down.” Today was different for her. She woke up at 6 which is late, had chai and rushed to her field. The field is half an hour away from where we stay.

She continues, “I come back again at 10-11 am to make lunch, wash the buffaloes, feed them and ask the devrani (Sister in Law) to graze them while they rush back in the fields.” This is what she says with conviction, “I have no option, whether it rains, or it’s too hot to work, I need to get the work done.”

Daddi has this terrific sense of sadistic humour. So Dadda, Daddi have two houses, one’s near the road, and the other is 10-minute steep trek.

She told me, she’s getting old and has difficulty, trekking up and down throughout the day. She thought of just shifting to the roadside house However, she realized the complications of that. The roadside house has no space and no sun. I interjected and said, why not build a cattle house down since you come down to sleep at night? She replied, “But I have to graze them on top. She could do something, but what’s the point if she’s not alive.” I didn’t get it then, but once I did, I laughed. She smirked at me.  I washed the dishes and went to bed.