Young Ammini - Chapter 3 - The Weaving Mill and wanting to earn money - The Chronicles of the Youngest Child
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Today was Sati's first day at the new school, nearly forty minutes away from home, and Ammini walked her there. After the incident at the previous school, Ammini's older sisters and her brother Appukuttan had tried to convince her that not all schools were filled with perverted men. She, however, had had enough. The incident had given her the excuse she needed to tell her family that schooling was definitely not for her.
Deep inside, she knew it was also because of the difficulties she had with Mathematics. With no one to really sit with her and guide her, she found every problem hard, and given that life was difficult enough, she really did not want anything hard anymore. So she had made up her mind.
She was a bit surprised by how stubborn she was. One would think that in a family of strong-headed individuals, the younger children would learn to bend their will to get along with the older ones. But Ammini was beginning to realise that the whole house was full of people with their own degrees of determination. Not having much had made them all very clear about what they would and would not tolerate.
Ammini smiled as she walked Sati to her school, happy because she had done what she had to.
After dropping Sati off, she had to take a new route through the rice fields behind the school, pass Shri Vishnu's smaller temple and walk to the end of the curved road where the bamboo grove began. Somewhere beyond the bamboo grove was the small weaving factory. Her brother had told her he would meet her there around the time she dropped Sati off.
So Ammini hurried along towards her destination.
She had asked her older brother if he was all right with her trying to get a job at the weaving factory. She had told him that if she could not study, she could at least spend a few hours working and earn some money for the family.
She had seen that her brother was uncomfortable with the idea. Ammini was really still a little child. She was not even ten years old. Appukuttan, though happy at the idea of money coming into the home, was not convinced. Ammini was so frail and tiny. He stood in front of his sister, who was barely half his size, and swallowed worriedly.
Where had she got this idea from? Who would protect her if anything happened at the factory?
He frowned at his little sister.
Seeing his hesitation, Ammini said that she was quite all right with working only for a few hours after dropping Sati at school. If possible, she could even pick Sati up on her way back home. This way, both of them would be back home together by early afternoon.
She was sure that her brother would manage to talk to the boss and get them a deal that suited everyone.
Having negotiated well, Ammini succeeded in planting the idea in her brother's head. The boss at the factory would meet them that day, and someone would show Ammini how to sort the cotton. Weaving itself was still a long way off.
Ammini reached the spot in front of the factory. There was a huge mango tree right near the gate, and her brother was resting under it, sheltering himself from the heat.
They both walked in. The boss sat behind a desk that served as his entire office. He looked at Ammini and asked one of the women in the inner room to take her in. Appukuttan waited with him while Ammini walked through the room, passing rows of manual weaving stations.
The first thing that struck her was the noise. Wood clacked against wood in a constant, rhythmic racket as the weavers worked their looms. Their hands moved so quickly and precisely that, to Ammini, they seemed to be flying through the air. Each unit was occupied. There were about thirty of them, Ammini counted quickly, looking around to see if anyone might be moving so she could get a chance to try one of the wooden contraptions.
All the people in the room were women and young girls. They had cloths tied over their mouths and noses. Ammini did not know why at first, but soon she felt her breathing getting clogged by the tiny particles of cotton that seemed to be everywhere in the air.
The woman showing her the work stopped in front of a huge bale of rolled cotton. Little girls were sorting through the cotton, working to unroll the material and draw it out into a long, thin filament, constantly adding to it. They then rolled the thread onto a sort of bobbin.
This was where Ammini sat cross legged and imitated the others for the next hour or two.
The work was not tiring. It was just that, like at home, no one was talking. Everyone was busy doing their tasks, and Ammini followed suit.
When her allotted time was over, the woman took her back to the boss and told him how much she had done. She mumbled something about Ammini's efficiency.
The boss told her and Appukuttan that she could come the next day and that she would be paid at the next full moon. She was reminded to bring a larger cloth to protect her nose and mouth.
Ammini saw that Appukuttan seemed satisfied and heard him accept the terms on her behalf.
She had a large smile on her face as they walked back towards the temple and the school, where they would pick Sati up after her first day at the new school. They had both begun something new that morning, each in her own way. Ammini could not wait to tell Sati all about her adventure, but she would wait until her brother was not around.
*Ammini was my mother. She was born in 1935 and I was born to her when she was 43yrs old.
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You can read the previous two stories about my mother's childhood here.
Young Ammini - Chapter 1 - The bathing ritual - The Chronicles of the Youngest Child
and
Young Ammini - Chapter 2 - Schooling woes - The Chronicles of the Youngest Child - trigger warning
or these stories about a day in her life when I was a young child in Bombay.
This is a day in the life of Ammini as a woman listed below.
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