The Maid Servant by Nu Yin

      Translated by "T.T"     



                ME Aye  is a maid -servant , working in the domestic establishment of U Tet Pyo,a broker of the town .Her monthly wages are only three rupees.Fair and tender are her features and demeanour and her character and temperament are all that could be desired.She comes from an out-of-the-way village where she lived with her widowed mother and her younger sisters and brothers.The mother is an invalid and Me Aye has to walk the streets and lanes of the village to hawk a few sweet-meats to earn a trifling bit of money on which alone the whole destitute family lives. But her 'business' does not thrive well, and eventually the small outlay has been swallowed up by the family expenditure.She tries again,this time by the borrowing a little money from  a money-lender on the pledge of repaying with interest in daily instalments.This system also fail in the long run for the cost of living for the whole family, with the cost of medicines for the invalid,which is an essential as the cost of living ,simply neutralizes what little profit is gained, as well as a portion of the outlay, so that at last the putlay has disappeared altogether.

          Now there is no way out for Me Aye.She is wondering what she must do next to feed the invalid mother and the children, when fortunately,U tet Pyo comes with his family to the village on  a  pleasure trip.In the cause of the casual conversation Mrs.Tet Pyo.Me Aye is offered  the job of  a  maid servant on three rupees  a month .Being so down and out , she jumps at the offer and leaves her mother and her sisters and brothers to follow U Tet Pyo's family to their home in the town.

          Having never left the parental home before,Me Aye feels deeply.Her  old mother gives her a never- ending sermon on how she should behave while in the employ of the master's family.being an ignorant village girl,sentimental and unsophisticated.,Me Aye  feels a  sharp twinge in the heart when she embraces and pats her younger sisters and brothers.She can never in her life forget the sad tone of her mother  when she gives her maternal  blessings at the time of farewell kowtow .

          Now in the domestic service of the broker,Me Aye  works hard,U Tet Pyo and the mistress have one son, the eldest of the children and the three daughters.U Tet Pyo is a silent,good natured old man, who seldom talks about family affairs.Mrs.Tet Pyo, on the contrary, is a very talkative lady,fastidious and officious.The eldest daughterhas a bad temper.The second one spends all her available time in beautifying herself.The yongest has a proud heart.Me Aye does not anything about the son,for he has been away in some town with a job .

          Me Aye is under a three -year contract.She gets up at four in  the morning to cook rice for offering to the monks and at the family altar.After having done that,she has to heat some water for the  family face-washing.Then she has to prepare coffee .

          Then she goes to the bazaar to buy meat and vegetables.The cooking of breakfast commences with all its elborate process, and she has to do it with great alacrity to enable the family to take breakfast in time.Breakfast over,Me Aye has to start the routine work of scrubbing the floor,dusting the furniture and washing clothes, which takes her into the evening.coming as she does of a decent family,though poor,she sometimes cannot check the rising wave of loathing at the  sight of the dirty  linen,especially the women's skirts. But, what is that after all, when she thinks of her daily duty of carrying the chamber pots of the family in the early hours of the day ?

         The evening comes with a full programme of work for her.She has to go to the bazaar for  a second time in the day to buy some more to add the menu for dinner.The tastes of the various members  of the family vary.The old man likes to have at least two or three  good dishes of curry at every meal .His wife cannot go without some curry heavily spiced and full of butter.the eldest daughter relishes a bowl of wholesome soup.The second one does not care for any curry unless it has an overdose of cooking oil, and has a nutty taste .The youngest one, however likes it somewhat sour and salty and some  what pungent .Me Aye  has to cope with such varied tastes with  bazaar money of only twelve annas ,and the family resents any repetition of the morning's items in the evening's menu.So it is a great problem foe Me Aye, this bazarring.She has to think hard to choose the sort of vegetables and meat that could satisfy each one in the family.

        After dinner,Me Aye has to iron the linen she has washed in the daytime.Then she has to prepare thanakha and  other scented things for the mother and the daughters to smear their face and bodies with .When night falls, she has to prepare the beds for all the family.Then she boils water to serve the family with green tea, for it is the custom for some  Myanmar, especially the Upper Myanmar, to sip green tea to sip green tea through the night till they go to bed.After having set the tea- pot on the table,she goes to where the mistress is reading the day's newspaper and waves a fan for her and also for the three daughters who are sitting near by.A little while afterwards she has to message the mother, as well as the daughters in turn.The three daughters then go to bed; but the mother does not as yet.She goes, as usual , to the family altar attached to the house and reposes before it in the posture of prayer.Me Aye has to follow her there to wave a fan to keep  her cool and free from mosquitoes, while the mistress is doing her spiritual exercises.

           With the  whole family gone to bed Me Aye retreats  to her kitchen but her time for rest yet to come.She has to finish off some pieces of work  left undone during the day owing the pressure of  work.She has, for instance, a few plates left  to be washed,or her frayed clothes  need some mending.Only after she has put everything to its proper place,she has to go to bed which is just a dirty -looking mat unrolled on the floor of the kitchen.Being so tired from the day's work,Me Aye is fast asleep, with a heart that is glad a  day has been done with and  that has earned some mite for her old mother.

           The monsoon is over and it is the end of BuddhistLent,which is celebrated by the Myanmar people with a lighting festival.The whole town is illumated and one comes across rows and rows of lights wherever on turns one's face.Thus the streets are lined with lights ,the facades of houses are decorated with festoons of lights.The moon is riding its cloudless way and a gentle breeze is fanning the crowd of merry makers who swarm the streets.

            The son of the broker has come home on holiday from the town at which he has been working as  a Goverment official.The whole family is happy at the return of the son, and the joy adds to the festival mood in which the family, like many another in the town has been caught.Even the usually taciturn broker falls to talking loud and long and the whole house is agog witha babel of noises.Joy and festivity have joined to soften the heart of eldest daughterThe second one, with her beauty-complex has done her utmost at her toilette.Even the prou youngest one assumes a condescending air and joins the general conversation with  hearty laughter .

             Me Aye looks at the family about to set out to the lighting centers for sight-seeing, and feels happy.The lighting festival with its attractions comes but once ayear and naturally Me Aye feels like going out sight-seeing.But realizing that she is in a lowly position,Me Aye has discreetly refrained from asking permission to go out.She has to watch the whims and facines of the family and is a nd is afraid to offend.Even if, for argument's sake,she is asked to accompany the family ,she cannot afford to leave the house,for she has alot of work  to do.If she puts by the work for this hour then it will pile ip in the next hour.Domestic duties are such that they cannot be put by or postponed.If things are not ready in time then there will come chiding and scolding.Me Aye casts a long,sad glance at the family leaving the house for the festival.

           Two years have passed.One day she meets a  man from her village, who informs her old mother is lying seriously ill.She is so slow and uninterested in her work all the day long.She is afraid that the broker may not grant her leave to go back to her village to see her illing mother.After much hestitation,Me Aye timidly approaches the family with a request for leave.None of the family likes to let her go to see her mother.Even the most essential worker has off- duty periods, and is enetitled to leave.But,Me Aye, only a humble maid servant ,cannot give leave.Off-duty periods she has never known she cannot have enough time to keep sabbath during Lent.Nor has she been givena chance to keep sabbath during the Water Festival and New year's Day.The denial of off-duty periods does not affect her in the least.But the denial of leave to visit her mother has hurt her painfully.

            Ignorant,loving and sentimental.Me Aye pictures to herself her old mother in her sick -bed and her heart is gripped with anxiety.Now however anxious I may be,I simply can't get to  the beside of my mother,she mutters to herself.She thinks that the only possibly to help her mother in sickness is to pray fervently for her recovery and so she mutters prayers incessantly, while deep in heart is a lingering regret at her fate which has thrown her into servitude.

          The family,however  goes on happiness,paying little heed to the distress of their maid-servant,who has faithfully rendered her service to make their life comfortable.But the enslaved girl has been sadly counting the days that remain between her and liberty.
                                                         
                                                                     
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