The rusted bathtub
As Budhee looked away to her village, Amba witnessed Budhee’s lanky body walk down the dusty wall of sand as tears saturated with memories rolled down her eyes. The first memory of Budhee meeting Amba is so prominent in her mind, as if she can touch the friendship with her eyes closed. She still remembers when her mother Sarla who was a help to the thakur’s two storyed house. Budhee will follow Sarla in every corner as she cleans the dishes, mops the dusty floor, cooks for the thakurs, chops wood for the fire but Budhee’s favorite time of the day was when her mother would do the dirty laundry by hand in the backyard of the thakur’s house. Her mother would fill a tin bathtub with water and sit three year old Budhee in it to play. Budhee enjoyed the splitter splatter of the water in the hot day. Sarla would earn a thousand rupees and one time meal in return of the chores she did around the house. Sarla’s husband died last summer as they couldn’t afford medical help when he suffered