Some months ago, my husband Ravi, who was staying at the Taj Mansingh in Delhi, called room service for dinner. The young lady who answered the call was polite, pleasant and completely fluent in English. After she’d finished taking the order, she asked Ravi if he recognised her. While Ravi was desperately trying to place her, she informed him that she was Vinita, Irma’s daughter.
Irma was our maid who had worked for us for 16 years, and who had come to us before my daughter Neha was born, and who had raised both our girls and stayed with us right till we left Delhi in 1996. Irma had come to me when she was 16. A tall, tribal Christian girl from Ranchi, with her sari worn a foot above her ankles, who could barely speak Hindi, a gentle, slim giant with a heart of gold, who never raised her voice even once to the kids.
She married a young man from her community whom she met in Delhi and we got him a job at the Taj. When her daughter Vinita was ready to go to school, I entreated her to put her in a convent. I explained how Christian schools always had quotas for economically backward Christian children, and mercifully she listened to me and Vinita joined a well-known convent school very close to our house.
We moved to Mumbai and lost touch with them, but when Vinita was in the 11th grade, we got a call from Irma saying her husband had passed away suddenly and she needed help to get the provident fund due to her husband as soon as possible from the hotel. In passing she also told us that she was pulling Vinita out of school, (who was doing very well) as they needed a breadwinner desperately. We were all shocked and begged her to manage on the monies coming for just a year and to let Vinita finish school, and that we would help her get a job the minute she graduated.
She finally agreed reluctantly. When Vinita completed school we first tried to get her a job at my brother’s hotel in Gurgaon. But Irma was worried about her travelling so far, especially at night. Again we were out of touch for a while, until the evening Ravi spoke to her on the phone. I cannot describe the joy and pride I felt when Ravi told me she was working at the Taj.
All I know is that there are a million Vinitas waiting in the wings... just waiting for an opportunity to show us the mettle they are made of, to reach the heights they are capable of, to break the glass ceilings they are reaching for, and to fight for the rights that they are naturally born to inherit. To be educated and financially independent is the beginning of all empowerment. It gives you the strength to fight, to say no, to dream, to create, to find yourself.. and ultimately to fly.
To our daughters and to the many Vinita’s everywhere ...of course you can!
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