“ Hey Jamal, bhai, are you heading towards the guest house?” shouted Sanju, as Jamal came out of the mosque after his Maghrib prayer. Jamal turned back after wearing back his slippers outside the mosque and said, “ Oh Yes Sanju you know tonight that big officer with his family is staying and so have to prepare a hefty meal, I will be getting a few of the required ingredients for the dishes on my way to the guest house.” Sanju hurriedly reached to him and said “ ok, then I go straight to the guest house in case anyone calls for any assistance, I have made the outside lawn ready for the morning tea for them, will be putting the chairs and tables in the morning only so that there’s no dew on them. See you then at the guest house” and he climbed the narrow ridge to get to the guest house while Jamal went down the road to fetch some essentials for the dinner.

Jamal and Sanju were posted as a cook and a gardener at the Railway Guesthouse, they were together for six years now and were best buddies since then. Though they hailed from different cultures and upbringing but respected each other’s space and yet shared inseparable camaraderie. All the guests who stayed at the Guesthouse always left with praises for Jamal’s food and scenic beauty of the place with various kinds of flora, appreciating Sanju’ talent. Hence the guest house had become a much talked about destination among Railway officers for their official as well as leisure visits. Jamal’s wife helped to keep the guest house clean by doing all dusting, sweeping, and cleaning tasks while Sanju was single and did not wish to marry as he had his own reasons.

After collecting all the ingredients for the dinner, Jamal walked steadily towards the guest house. He had to prepare dinner for the family of five comprising of the officer, his wife, mother, and two kids. Once he was there, he straightaway headed towards the Kitchen rather than going to the outhouse where he stayed with his wife. Seeing him in the kitchen, the officer’s wife went towards the kitchen door and said in a gentle voice” Jamal could you please quickly prepare two cups of tea and one cup of coffee if it is not a botheration for you?”. “ Not at all ma'am, please give me ten minutes, would the kids be taking milk or something to drink” asked Jamal while emptying his bag and putting the purchase on the slab. “ No Jamal, they will just have an early dinner and then go to bed,” she said while looking outside the adjacent window facing the backside of the guest house from where she could see the setting Sun which had spread its orange and pink particles in the horizon. While she was admiring the vista, she saw a lady walking towards the guest house carrying a duffle bag and then turning towards the outhouse.

 “ you stay with your wife Jamal?” She asked. Jamal was in the middle of the beverage preparation and hearing this a modest smile appeared on his face and he replied: “ yes ma'am, we two stay here at the outhouse and she takes care of the cleaning part of this guest house, why you asked about her?”.

“ Oh! actually, just now I saw her entering the outhouse so guessed her to be your wife” she said. “ Maam she has joined a tailoring course and goes to a nearby center to learn the craft,  this way she pursues her interest and it also helps her to overcome our helplessness to bear a child” Jamal replied with heaviness in his voice. Gauging the sensitive turn of the conversation Priya (officers’ wife ) said “ Jamal once you are done with the tea and coffee please let me know I will take it to the room while you continue with your meal preparations” and left the place.

After a while Priya entered the living area of the place with the Tea for Mr. Bakshi and his mother and a cup of coffee for herself. “ where is Jamal?” asked Mr. Bakshi in a stern voice. “ I only told him to stay in the kitchen for dinner preparation, “ Priya said while serving him and her mother-in-law the tea. “ when will you learn to handle the workers, it has been so many years now, had not been mother staying with us and controlling the servants you would have spoiled them with your unwanted friendly attitude towards them,” said Mr. Bakshi while sipping his tea. “ Leave it, son, there are many things which one learns from life than from books or education,” said his mother with a sarcastic look. Priya did not react to this as it was not the first time, she was hearing it. After twenty years of living in the family, she found all her explanations and proving her point, a waste of time and effort. She took her coffee and went to the front window which gave a nice green view of the lawn with white lilies, red hibiscus, dahlia, and different varieties of crotons. She wanted to maximize her vacation to this place with her kids rather than wasting time on endless arguments she has been listening since her marriage. They were there for four days’ vacation as Mr. Bakshi had some official work too at the city’s head office.

Within an hour dinner was ready as Jamal cleverly heard Ms. Priya telling him that kids will take early dinner and go to bed. Jamal was quick at arranging the dinner table and serving the dishes to the guests. All loved the food and the Kids specially, enjoyed the meal. Later when the kids went to bed, Priya went to the garden to take a stroll and Mr. Bakshi gave company to his beloved mother like he always did at home too, chatting about relatives that Priya never was interested in. While walking in the garden she saw Jamal’s wife in the backyard, she went near to her and called her in a slightly loud voice so that she can hear her “ Hey! Are you Jamal’s wife? I am Priya, Mr. Bakshi’s wife, we are staying at the guest house .”

Jamal’s wife greeted her and said” yes madam I know, my husband told me about you people staying here for three days. Hope you liked your dinner which my husband prepared tonight”.

“Oh! Yes, of course, everything from soup to the desert, he is a talented cook. You had your food?”
“ No madam, I am waiting for him to come, as we eat together, though he insists me to eat early as you see we are just two people in the house for ten years now, so it doesn’t feel good eating alone,” said Jamal’s wife.

Hearing this Priya realized that it has been ages that she had food with her husband anytime together with at home since past more than fifteen years, he and his mother always ate together before her and never have bothered of asking her to join. She never remembered the time when she accepted this routine and just got accustomed to it. These thoughts suddenly made her feel uncomfortable and she went back to the garden and then to bed.

The next day Mr. Bakshi got up early as had to go to the head office for his official work. Jamal knew this schedule and so was in the kitchen at 6:30 a.m. preparing tea and breakfast. Kids were still asleep, but Priya and her mother-in-law and Mr. Bakshi were in the lawn where Sanju had arranged the chairs and table for the same, then the mother-in-law told Priya “ you go to the kitchen and see if the cook is preparing the things properly, yesterday he had put extra oil which was not required, these cooks just want to make everything tasty by adding oil and spices, don’t know how they become cooks”. Mr. Bakshi added, “ Yes Priya just take care that the breakfast is not oily, mother is right, yesterday the vegetable was too oily.”

Priya was so used to hearing this sentence from both, plus other complaints against every cook and cleaner of the house that now it never made any difference to her. Just to be away from them she went into the kitchen where she saw Jamal working as efficiently as he could to serve the breakfast.

When all three of them were having breakfast, Jamal’s wife came to do the dusting and cleaning of the guest house which she meticulously did every day without fail and this was visible in the sparkling clean place. When she was brooming Mr. Bakshi’s mother started giving instructions to her on how to clean the place properly which made Mr. Bakshi smile in pride as he always had this impression that his mother is the only person to keep the things clean, tidy, and manageable. Seeing this Jamal came to his wife and took the broom from her and said, “ dear my kitchen work is done, I can broom the place, you take rest as you are unwell”. Jamal started doing the cleaning and his wife did some tidbit tasks of dusting and arranging things. Seeing this Priya was moved, she was never helped by anyone at home during her sickness, rather always was shown her faults. She remembered last time when she had a fever, Mr. Bakshi, scared of getting an infection stood at the doorstep of her room and said” measure your temperature and keep taking your medicine till you feel ok” and never even bothered to hand over the medicines or touched her to check the temperature.

She told Jamal “ you both are lucky to have each other, God bless you both”.

Jamal smiled and said, “ Madam I am not as educated as you are but know this little thing that I have taken a vow during our marriage that I would take care of her in sickness and in health and will not make her feel weak or belittle in front of anyone” and he continued his work. Priya’s mother-in-law immediately said to Priya “ C’mon don’t waste time chatting with servants, your husband is leaving for work “.

When Mr. Bakshi left, Jamal also finished all cleaning tasks, the kids got up and even had their breakfast. Jamal winded up the kitchen and left for his home for two-three hours till lunch preparations. Priya took her book to read on the lawn while the kids were playing. Mother-in-law was as usual got busy chatting with her daughter on the phone which she always did when Mr. Bakshi left for work giving an hourly report of what is going on at her son’s house and how her presence is important in managing the house.

While Priya was engrossed in her book, she suddenly her a big thud sound and as she lifted her face from her book, she saw her mother-in-law lying on the ground and phone shattered into hundred tiny bits. She ran towards her and told her kids to call for servants from the outhouse. She checked her pulse, it was running terribly slow, she was in her senses but had turned pale, soon she was helped by Jamal and Sanju who took her mother-in-law inside to her bed. The Sanju gave few herbs to Jamal to prepare a potion and at the same time called for a nearby doctor. Priya saw the watch and thought not to call Mr. Bakshi as he might be in the middle of that important meeting and decided to inform him after the doctor does the checkup.

Jamal’s wife continuously rubbed her mother-in-law's feet with warm oil which she got from her home and Jamal gave her the potion. After about half an hour the doctor arrived and examined her properly. He enquired on every detail of what all happened. Then said “ your mother-in-law had a minor heart stroke, however as you people have taken immediate actions and gave the herbal medicine, it seems that has not made the thing bad. She needs to take rest and few medicines I am prescribing of blood pressure and she will be fine in 3-4 days.” Then the doctor gave his prescription to Priya and left.

Meanwhile, all three, Jamal, his wife, and Sanju were there doing everything to make her mother-in-law relax. Priya then gave a call to Mr. Bakshi and informed him about everything. Within fifteen minutes of the call he was there at the guest house and went running to his mother and shouted “ why I was informed so late? How irresponsible of everyone”. Then he asked his mother how she was feeling. Mother said in a low voice “ I am ok just need rest” and closed her eyes.

Mr. Bakshi extended their stay for further five days and spoke to the doctor himself who visited the next day. Mr. Bakshi asked the doctor “ what you think doctor ? should we get her shifted to a hospital? I can do that so that she gets proper care and treatment”. Hearing this and re-examine his mother, the doctor said “ don’t panic Mr. Bakshi, she has no danger now, today her blood pressure is also normal, and things are far better than yesterday. You should be thankful to your wife and the servants who took immediate care and action to keep the situation under control, in two days’ time you people can travel again”. After the doctor left Priya told to Mr. Bakshi “ you should thank the servants at least as the doctor said they have taken good care when it was needed”. Mr. Bakshi agreed and went to the kitchen where Jamal, his wife, and Sanju were sitting and looked concerned of the situation. He said to them “ I have no words how to thank all of you, but yes please let me know if I can do anything in return”.

Hearing this Jamal said, “ no need to thank us, Sir, it is Allah who guides us all and shows us the right path”. Then after a pause, he added” Sir I would just like to tell you a small thing, that whatever a person’s profession is, cleaner, Gardner, cook, washerman, teacher, doctor or anything, they all have been made by the same Allah or God as you are, hence we all have heart and feelings which I think madam understands and respects. when you give respect, you will surely get it. We, servants, are also humans like you, two kinds of words will make us do your work from the heart but one shouting ruins it. I anyone does not answer back is just because they have more respect in their heart than you, that’s all I have to say, Sir.”