It was the last Friday before Eid and I was changing the TV channels idly. A headline on a particular channel’s scroll suddenly caught my eyes. “All employees must be given September’s salary before Eid,” the government had announced. My eyes fell upon Asma Apu, the helping hand in our house who was quietly mopping the floor. Despite her hard work, she wasn’t even recognised as a laborer in our society. Would she get her salary before Eid?
The last Eid of 2015 is about to pass us by. By this time of the year, many people might have already had significantly wonderful things happen to change their lives. Others might be leading the same hard lives they always had, or maybe even harder ones. While many of our grievances in life circulate around what our CGPA is going to turn out to be or whether our boyfriends/girlfriends will become our life partners or not, there are others who spend every day of their lives yearning to see their lost dear ones just one more time and others who can’t sleep at night due to their stomachs aching from hunger.
It is sad but true that, these days, we’re not too concerned about anything other than our own lives. Something bad happens and we feel bad for a while. We become vocal against what happened and we post upset statuses on Facebook. Then, soon enough, we forget it all. Only those who fall victim are never able to forget, no matter how much they might want to. We’re a rather helpless generation, aren’t we? We see a lot of wrongdoings around us, yet we can do very little to bring about the change our society so badly needs. We want to make a difference, but we’re lost as to what we can actually do.
I don’t know either. I don’t know what we can do to keep the Rajons of our society safe or what we can do to make sure the poor people in our community one day find peace in their lives. All I know is that we can’t bring about the change overnight. The mission of change that we’ll embark on today, future generations will carry that into a brighter future tomorrow. In that brighter tomorrow, every Bangladeshi, poor or rich, will taste happiness. To take today to that tomorrow, we each have to play our parts.
If our mentalities are such that we’ll only play the “parts” where we can take selfies and post them online to get showered with admiration or parts which we can include in our resumes to get accreditation, then how far of an impact it will make in reality, is a question filled with doubt. It is because of such defected mentalities that we spend an afternoon outside in a clothes-donating program to street children and then come home oblivious to the little girl cleaning our house, wearing torn, ragged clothes. A true humanitarian caresses a street child lovingly and affectionately befriends the domestic help at home as well. No tale of misery misses his/her eyes, be that inside our homes or outside. But most people are not true humanitarians. They forget to care for the poor people living inside their own homes, probably because there’s less scope to show-off there.
We really need to refine our mentalities. If we really want the sorrow of the masses around us to be lessened, we have to want it from our hearts and we have to do so selflessly. And so, as much as we’re concerned about giving meat to the poor people of our locality this Eid, we should be equally concerned about the poor helping hands inside our homes being able to enjoy their Eid too.
Let’s make this Eid more enjoyable for our domestic help in all our houses. To lessen their woe of not being close to their own families, let’s make them part of our own families on Eid day and let them get a share of the joy. Let them wear new clothes and roam around freely. Call them to watch some of the Eid natoks with you. Your household won’t break down if the floors aren’t swept for one day. Eid, after all, is a day for everyone to enjoy.
How about we start using disposable plates and utensils in our Eid parties instead of the usual glass/ceramic ones? That will relieve the helping hands of the tiresome duty of washing cutlery on Eid day. One-time-use disposable plates and similar dinnerware are available now in different departmental stores like Meena Bazar, Shwapno, etc and at very reasonable prices too.
The problem in implementing this is that, most people in our society think of shining, heavy, expensive dinnerware as a “status symbol.” The heavier and shinier the glass plates, the richer the household. “Borolok,” and often, “Bhodrolok” today mean big houses, cars, crystals in drawing rooms, and heavy plates on the dining table. So, for many, it is unimaginable that guests would be given disposable plates to eat on. “Amar bashai ki plate er obhaab?” would be the majority response. People might even consider it as disrespecting the guests. Yet, it shows no sign of disrespect at all; it is rather a sign of humanity towards the helping hands who would have had to spend half their Eid day cleaning the cutlery.
It’s time we change our definition of being “rich.” Instead of how big one’s wealth is, it’s time we measure richness by how big one’s heart is. A family that is serving you food on disposable plates in their parties to give relief to their maids are good-hearted people, not cheapskates. It’s time we start thinking right, time we start valuing things worth being valued. In developed countries all over the world, plastic/paper disposable plates are used for big parties. They probably resorted to that sooner than we have because, in most developed countries, the family members themselves wash their own dishes. It’s a smart way to make life easier. Why can’t we do the same to make our helping hands’ lives easier, at least on Eid day?
On behalf of Shomman, this Eid, I invite everyone to figure out ways to relief the workload of helping hands on the day of Eid festivities. Using disposable utensils is one way -- there are many others. Let’s find ways to bring smiles to the faces of these people living in our houses and make it an Eid everyone can cherish the memory of.
Isn’t it about time that we change?
Whether you are a socialite, a teacher, a friend, a street child, or a helping hand- Shomman wishes you an Eid filled with happiness and peace. Eid Mubarak.
