In Sethji's Employ

Taking up again from where we left off. Savithri's father died, she returned home. In today's post, she enters the then thin ranks of working women. 

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In the train, Savithri learnt that she could get a portion for rent at Mandevali. In this area lived the “hand to mouth” class. Each house had 4 or 5 tenants and the area under the possession of a tenant was a portion. Once the funeral rites were over, Savithri and her mother took a train to Egmore station from where they took a rickshaw to Mandevali. Savithri enquired around for a place and a kindly old lady took her to a house where there was a vacant portion. Savithri’s search for a job then began in earnest. These were days of recession and few establishments had vacancy boards. Even then Savithri ventured into some offices. She found that she had a new problem, employers wanted experienced hands. With few options, she continued with her futile search. One such day she met woman carrying a tin. Having little else to do, she walked along with the lady. This lady had been abandoned by her husband and was left to fend for herself. She had come to Chennai and was now selling appalams door to door. As the quality was good, her clientele increased and she even had a few orders for the lucrative marriage season. Of course it entailed hard work from dawn to dusk - preparing the dough, rolling appalams, drying and distributing but it gave her a good income. The lady lived with confidence and dignity. Now Savithri learnt that a woman need not be an employee of somebody but could be self employed. But appalams was not her line. She had never entered a kitchen, her education she hoped would get her a job.

In those days, colleges were very few and high schools were not many. Parents wanted their sons to earn as early as possible at the expense of their education. But the boys themselves were keen to study against all odds. One such boy was Raju. He was studying in a high school and was the son of a co-tenant of Savithri. This gentleman had no regular income. He was an assistant to a cook and got work when the cook got assignments. His family had however burgeoned every other year. With a child due soon and in keeping with the nature of parents of the time, he expected Raju to quit studies and start earning. Raju too felt that he should earn at least to pay for his school fees and expenses. He decided to cash in on his skill of portrait sketching.

The vast Marina beach provides a livelihood to many even today. Then too the vendors of drinking water, herbs, fortune tellers, malishwallas, owners of ponies and so on had a floating clientele at the beach. The vendors income was small but enough to keep body and soul together. Raju started offering his sketching services at the beach. His earnings were sufficient to meet his expenses and at times he was able to give some money to his mother.

Seth Manilalji, a young Gujarati businessman, was a regular at the beach for his evening walk. One day he got into his head to get his portrait sketched by Raju. Sethji liked the sketch so much that he asked Raju to visit his house to draw sketches of his two children. This visit developed into a sort of friendship between them.

Raju was narrating all this to Savithri, when she discussed her problem with him. Raju suggested that he could talk to Sethji regarding her employment. Savithri agreed. Sethiji was managing a trust founded by his late father. He needed somebody to assist him in this work. When Raju approached Sethji, he offered the job to Savithri. Savithri was now working and her office was located in a small room in the ground floor of the Sethji’s bungalow.