Blue Thumb Impressions

About 40 women were gathered near the cash-window. They were all contracted labourers hired by the Govt. institute for doing small unskilled works. None of them knew how to read or write. They were talking to each other in their own dialect, which was difficult to understand for locals. There was some excitement among them, as some of them had planned to leave for their villages for celebrating Holi Festival after collecting their hard-earned wages.

Suddenly the almost still group got animated and concentrated near the window. The cash-madam had come. That’s what they called her “Cash-Madam” or “Cash wali Madam”. Her name was Shilpa, but none of them knew it, but they all knew that she was the one who will give them their money for a month today.

“Chanda?”

Chanda went close to the window and Madam gave her few notes. Chanda looked at the notes and flipped them, maybe to understand.

“Thumb Impression here” Madam pushed an Ink-pad towards here along with the receipt.

Chanda complied and left from the window, still looking at the notes in her hand.

Similarly, the Cash-madam called everyone’s names and handed each of them a few notes and got their blue thumb impressions on receipts with revenue stamps. Cash-Madam looked at all the receipts with blue thumb impressions and smiled. She loved those thumb impressions.

Shilpa herself was from a small family. She got this job in the accounts department of a Govt Institute as a result of the kindness of a local MLA. Some people said that she had to pay a lot to get this job, but no one was sure. Shilpa was happy to be here. The working hours were less and there was no strict time schedule for her. After the initial few days, Shilpa knew she can come and go anytime she wished. She was handling the calculation and distribution of wages among unskilled working women. She also maintained their attendance records.

It did not take her much time to realize that she was like a god for those women. A day’s wage for an unskilled woman was about 300 Rs. Shilpa deducted a day from a few of the women and bagged the money. She had thought that if any of them came back, she would say there was a mistake in her attendance and she would pay the money. But none of the women came back. Next month she deducted from more women, still, no one noticed. Now Shilpa was comfortable. The payday for the women was also a bonus day for Shilpa. She deducted a day or two from all of the 40 women’s salary. Now even if any woman asked Shilpa about lesser wages, Shilpa would reply that it was because she did not come for 2 days or some other reason like that. Since the attendance record was also with Shilpa, there was no way to verify.

The women although discontent with their wages, were not able to say anything as they were illiterate and could not properly count or calculate. They depended entirely upon the honesty of the Cash-Madam. They cursed the madam internally, but could not say anything. Many of them left, but thanks to the unemployment new ones were ready to join beforehand.

Shilpa’s life was going well. She has spare money for better clothes and jewellery. She got expensive toys for her son. Being an accounts person Shilpa calculated that in the last two years she had made at least 2.5 lacs of rupees extra by deducting from wages of unskilled women.

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It was payday again. The women were as usual gathered near the Cash-window waiting for their fate-window to open. The window opened at the scheduled time. The women were surprised to find a man sitting in the place of Cash-Madam.

One of them asked, “Sir Ji, where is the madam?”

“She will not come anymore. I have joined in place of her”

The women did not ask more but were happy to find her wages increase a bit. Many other women also asked the same question to the man. But all they could know was she has left the job and now this man will be distributing their wages to them. They were all happy with the wages they got now.

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Shilpa went home after distributing the wages. Weight of extra cash in her purse was making her happy. The excitement tired her off and she went to bed. She had dreams of getting more and more money and sending her son to the best school in City, buying new furniture she had seen at the mall a few days back. She went to the mall to buy new clothes. She donated generously to a beggar she met at a light point near the mall. At the mall, She chose the best of the dresses and went to the trial room. She took off her clothes to try the new dress. When she looked into the mirror, she was surprised. There were some blue marks on her body. As she was noticing them, the marks started getting darker. The were moving and getting bigger. Shilpa rubbed frantically on them to erase them. But they were not coming off. It was getting sore and painful wherever they were. The marks spread, soon her neck was blue. It did not stop there, it rose to her face. The reflection was now of a horrible dark blue-skinned lady. 

She woke up with a cry. She was covered in sweat but was glad this was just a dream. She finished the glass of water lying by her bedside. She touched herself to check she was fine. She actually felt some pain in her chest. She quickly took off her clothes and saw herself in the mirror. There were bluish marks. They looked like the thumb impressions of those women.

Next day Shilpa took the day off and went to the doctor. The doctor advised some tests. Test reports came. Shilpa had cancer...at its advanced stage.