She had not forgotten anything. Time and again, the past haunted her and stirred the sleeping ghosts.

It was her first day in their house.

The lady had given her a soap bar which was received free with the packet of tea power and said, “It is very expensive soap. Use it very carefully. And listen; put on that frock which Pinky’s mother has given you. Give that old one to your aunt when she comes to meet you. Her daughter can wear your old frock. Pinky’s mother has brought many other clothes for you.”

After the advice, she was about to leave when she stopped and said, “Why is this girl wearing these cheap clips in her hair. They look ugly!”

The little girl was scared.

“Listen!”

The girl stopped and began to wait. Her arms were full of the clothes which she had to wash. She had the new soap of bar on top of those clothes.

The woman said, “Remove these clips and give them to your aunt for her daughter. Pinky’s mother will give you better ones. She will buy you matching clips to go with the colour of your frock. Call Pinky’s mother ‘Auntie Jee” and call me ‘Dadi Jee’. I am Pinky’s grandmother. Do you understand?”

The old woman thought that the little girl would be happy but she did not find any such expressions on her face. The grandmother muttered to herself, “These poor people have become very cunning nowadays. We are giving her salary, food, good clothes, and other things but she shows as if she is not happy. We have given her a separate room. What else does she want?”

Her son and daughter-in-law wanted that the servant should never look different from the other members of the family. The neighbours should never get a chance to say that they have appointed a little girl as household help. They should think that they are giving better life to a poor girl.

The daughter-in-law had already bought a few dresses from the footpath vendors very cheaply. At least she would look neat and clean in those new clothes if not like her own daughter, Pinky.

She remembered that when her aunt had brought her to that house, she had lied to the inmates that the little girl was fifteen years old whereas she was hardly eleven at that time.

They needed a servant so they agreed to keep her. House maids were in great demand in New Delhi. The new found prosperity had made people lethargic and they boasted their richness through the number of servants they could keep in their houses.

Menu, the little girl, lived in a hut near the cremation ground. The hut belonged to her uncle and aunt. They had four children of their own. Menu was the daughter of a distant relative. Her parents had died in a calamity. She was the eldest of the children in the house. She began to go to the houses of the people where her aunt worked. She helped in cleaning the house, washing clothes, rinsing dishes, and running errands.

Menu liked Pinky because she was the only one in the house who talked politely with her. She would come running to her after the school. She called her ‘Menu Didi’ and Menu felt happy.

“Menu Didi, why don’t you study in my school?” said Pinky one day.

Menu could not answer that question.

Once Pinky said to Menu, “Menu Didi, why are you sitting on the floor? Come and sit on the sofa beside me.”

The grandmother pulled Pinky’s hand and took her into the kitchen, “Don’t you understand, Pinky, she is our servant. She can’t sit with you. Her parents were very poor. They lived in a village. They could not feed her that is why she is working in our house.”

The grandmother felt guilty after some time. She had to tell the truth, though her little granddaughter hardly understood what she had said. She entered the kitchen and looked at the dishes which Menu had washed. She took a towel and dried the pots and pans and arranged them properly. She wanted to help Menu but she could not say so in front of her daughter-in-law.

Somehow, she convinced her daughter-in-law to send Menu to school. At first she did not agree but when her son spoke for his mother, she agreed.

In the following ten years, Menu was almost transformed. She was accepted as a full member of the family. Gradually, the daughter-in-law began to behave politely with her. She spoke politely with Menu. They had already appointed an elderly lady to help Menu.

After her college, Pinky joined a computer company. One evening, there were guests in the house. It was not told that they were coming to see Pinky. Her father and mother had been looking for a suitable boy for their only daughter.

Pinky’s mother had bought a special dress for Menu for that particular day. Menu looked very beautiful in that dress. No one could guess that she was a maid servant in that house.

The dinner was served and the guests praised the cooking. Everything was prepared by Menu. After her college, she had joined a cooking class as well.

It transpired the guests liked the girl. Everyone was happy in the house.

Next morning, when Menu was about to go to her college, Pinky came running to her and said, “Menu Didi, would you believe? The boy liked you. He wants to marry you. He is a computer engineer. His parents live in America. You will be flying to America very soon.”

Menu was speechless.

Now, after ten years of that incident when she recalls those days, tears begin to drop from her eyes.