It was raining copiously , one of the heaviest in the season. She pushed the laminated plastic coated button of her black umbrella with purple flowers and slowly opened the fenced gate of her 1 Bhk apartment ,in a 4 storied building called "Saraswati CHS" , near the local station in Kalyan , trying her best not to make any noise that would wake up her mother.
Parvati was out again, in that stormy night for her part time job, about which her mother was not at all aware. It was past midnight now, the whole city seemed like the city of Venice , floating on water.
She waited for almost half an hour at the bus stop, almost wet in her orange colored Kurti with a batik print and a matching bottom to go with it, water was dripping down her shelled Earrings that dangled down on of her ears, only one of them,. Parvati, a dusky complexioned girl, with deep black eyes and sharp features, which gave her an attractive appeal even though she wasn't beautiful as per her mom, who felt that only fairness meant beauty. Her thick neatly plaited hair swished down her back with a fancy hair band with little tingling bells, that chimed whenever she moved, somewhat like a cow.
"Sorry for the delay, all the roads were water logged, we had to take a very long cut to reach the bus stop" a man sitting in the front seat , said to Parvati, he could be hardly seen as it was raining cats and dogs, and the water was dripping down the window of the silver santro car they were in. Parvati, hurried up and gathered all the small poly bags she was holding and , sat in the back seat of the car.
"Where the hell have you been Manjeet, do have any idea what time it is?" yelped Fatima Baaji at the man who had just gotten out of the front seat of the santro car. "And do you need some special invitation miss universe? Hurry up and get ready, you must know that we can do our job only at night, we are already short of time".
A scared Parvati, hurried out of the car, and ran up the wooden staircase, she almost faltered but managed to maintain her balance on that slippery floor."Carol, open the door, its me ,hurry up, open the door ", shouted Parvati. They both changed into fresh new clothes , hair tied up neatly with sweet smelling jasmine gajaras intertwined with the plaited hair . They were asked to quickly move to the main hallway and then to the corner room where they were supposed to be proceeding with their respected work.
Almost 2 hours had passed now, the dawn was about to break, the whole place was smelling of the world's best dishes, "Hurry up girls, the people have arrived, we must begin now".
With the first azaan in the morning, all the workers of the "rehmat" Orphanage , thanked the lord for giving them the duty to serve his other children, the most beautiful sight here was that there were people from all the sects working for this organization, including hindus, catholics and sikhs, under one roof, with their Muslim siblings.
These people used to gather together in the late hours of night and used to prepare food for the depriveed and less fortunate people, who used to come from by far near the holy Dargah early morning after the very first prayers in the mosque, they used to get some helpings and offerings from the nearby rich families and social firms as well, which parvati, a hindu girl used to earn as well as her part time work .
Humanity has no religion , caste or sect. Just one thing binds all of us together and that is the power of togetherness .
Parvati was out again, in that stormy night for her part time job, about which her mother was not at all aware. It was past midnight now, the whole city seemed like the city of Venice , floating on water.
She waited for almost half an hour at the bus stop, almost wet in her orange colored Kurti with a batik print and a matching bottom to go with it, water was dripping down her shelled Earrings that dangled down on of her ears, only one of them,. Parvati, a dusky complexioned girl, with deep black eyes and sharp features, which gave her an attractive appeal even though she wasn't beautiful as per her mom, who felt that only fairness meant beauty. Her thick neatly plaited hair swished down her back with a fancy hair band with little tingling bells, that chimed whenever she moved, somewhat like a cow.
"Sorry for the delay, all the roads were water logged, we had to take a very long cut to reach the bus stop" a man sitting in the front seat , said to Parvati, he could be hardly seen as it was raining cats and dogs, and the water was dripping down the window of the silver santro car they were in. Parvati, hurried up and gathered all the small poly bags she was holding and , sat in the back seat of the car.
"Where the hell have you been Manjeet, do have any idea what time it is?" yelped Fatima Baaji at the man who had just gotten out of the front seat of the santro car. "And do you need some special invitation miss universe? Hurry up and get ready, you must know that we can do our job only at night, we are already short of time".
A scared Parvati, hurried out of the car, and ran up the wooden staircase, she almost faltered but managed to maintain her balance on that slippery floor."Carol, open the door, its me ,hurry up, open the door ", shouted Parvati. They both changed into fresh new clothes , hair tied up neatly with sweet smelling jasmine gajaras intertwined with the plaited hair . They were asked to quickly move to the main hallway and then to the corner room where they were supposed to be proceeding with their respected work.
Almost 2 hours had passed now, the dawn was about to break, the whole place was smelling of the world's best dishes, "Hurry up girls, the people have arrived, we must begin now".
With the first azaan in the morning, all the workers of the "rehmat" Orphanage , thanked the lord for giving them the duty to serve his other children, the most beautiful sight here was that there were people from all the sects working for this organization, including hindus, catholics and sikhs, under one roof, with their Muslim siblings.
These people used to gather together in the late hours of night and used to prepare food for the depriveed and less fortunate people, who used to come from by far near the holy Dargah early morning after the very first prayers in the mosque, they used to get some helpings and offerings from the nearby rich families and social firms as well, which parvati, a hindu girl used to earn as well as her part time work .
Humanity has no religion , caste or sect. Just one thing binds all of us together and that is the power of togetherness .
