It was a nice clear morning in a suburb of Salem junction area. The streets were quiet except for some stray dogs barking and some goats walking around. The modest detached residential house was painted in pistachio green with a pink border. Jyothi had finished her morning chores and sent her son to the elementary school. She was bringing a second round of tea for her in-laws who were discussing the daily news from the papers and television channels.
A small Maruti car pulled up in front of that house and a person wearing dark glasses and a mask on his face walked in with his backpack.
Good morning, I am looking for Mr. Sampath, he asked me to come by and give a quote for a steel grill for your backdoor.
"Jyothi", called out the mother-in-law, someone has come to check the rear door. Jyothi walked up to the front door with a mask and asked who the person was.
"Good morning Madam, I am from Shree Steelworks, my name is Suresh Babu". The name and voice sounded familiar to Jyothi. He gave her his visiting card which matched what he had introduced. Jyothi took him around the outer corridor of the house to the rear side. Suresh took out a measuring tape and took down some measurements. While he was doing so his mask slipped and his face was clearly seen.
For a moment Jyothi's heart skipped a beat. Her mind went back ten years. She was a student in the nearby Sharada High school in the suburb of Coimbatore. She lived in a middle class neighborhood with a row of houses. Her father worked in the local bank and her mother was a teacher in a nearby elementary school. She remembered her days when she would take her bicycle to her school. She had only one person nearby who would ride the bicycle to the same school. Suresh Babu used to live two houses down the street. Her parents were okay for her to ride together with Suresh till about seventh grade. After that she wasn’t allowed to socialize with him. She insisted for safety she needed company along the mile long stretch to her school and he was the only person who rides the same route every day.
On the way they would both exchange notes from their class day as they were in the same classroom every day. Each teacher's mannerism was their favorite topic. They would discuss their career plans and discovered that both had a passion to pursue engineering. The state had severe caste based reservations and being part of the forward caste, both of them knew their odds were limited unless they secure very high marks in the 12th standard examinations held at the state level.
When the final results were announced, Jyothi has topped the district and Suresh was a little behind, enough to make it difficult to get an engineering admission. Jyothi joined the prestigious Engineering College in Guindy Chennai. She pursued her Mechanical and Industrial engineering major and again graduated with flying colors. She secured a job in her campus interview as well. Her parents had different plans as they had arranged for her marriage to someone in Salem through known channels. Jyothi resisted but could not stop the wedding.
She found that her in-laws were not in favor of her leaving the home and working elsewhere. As time rolled she had a son who was born and was a lot of fun to watch him grow. She lost herself between the kitchen and taking care of her family. She would glance at her college text books once in a while and feel bad for not having accomplished anything with that education.
The silence was broken by Suresh, who discussed the details of the door and gave couple of design and price options. He continued and asked if she was Jyothi from Coimbatore who studied in Sharada High School. He was so happy to have met her after a long time. Jyothi got him a cup of tea and were both chatting on the staircase next to the door.
Suresh shared his side of the story as to how he went to the engineering college selection counselling session and was only offered admission in a private engineering college. This meant his father had to spend an additional Rs. 15 lakhs. His father did not have the funds or was willing to get a loan. He was admitted into a diploma program focusing on mechanical design and welding. After graduation, he joined Shree Steelworks in Salem. He was a quick learner and was very good with customers. With his innovative ideas the company grew from a five person startup to a twenty employees. He was pursuing his part-time AMIE to get the engineering degree which evade him. He was also enrolled in a weekend MBA program to complement his practical knowledge with some theory. The owner introduced Suresh to his niece and they got married. After a year his owner gave him the full responsibility of the company and retired. Suresh showed the photograph of his family including his daughter to Jyothi.
Today Shree had over 50 employees and handing larger contracts. Suresh expressed his unhappiness with engineering graduates like Jyothi who are not able to achieve their dreams and aspirations. In turn they also block the goals for other serious students like him. Jyothi brought him to speed on what happened in her life.
Suresh asked, "would you be interested in working from home? I need to hire a design engineer for my company to complete large government contracts. You have to be online from 10AM to 4PM so we can all work together, later you can finish your tasks at a flexible schedule. Once a month you have to spend 2 hours with all members of the company and meet your team members".
"I know how well you would have studied and also your aptitude to draw and would be a good fit. I am willing to give you an opportunity now. We can start with a monthly salary of Rs. 30,000 with potential for growth. We will provide you a laptop and required CAD software to work from home. You need to find a quiet location in your house and get a high speed internet connection. The first three months you would be training and coming to speed, to cover the cost of the laptop and software you would not be paid during that period. If you do well then your employment will be permanent with a salary". Jyothi could not believe her ears and it sounded like music.
She discussed with her husband that evening, who then shared the news with his parents. They were all suddenly very supportive, the money makes all the difference Jyothi thought. She overheard her in-laws discussing about getting Parvatam Mami who cooks at their neighbors to help out and give a relief to Jyothi. We have to pay Rs. 3000 to the cook and get Rs. 30,000, that's a good deal, they were discussing.
Jyothi started dusting off her college textbooks and finding her space in life. The fact that she was finally putting her education to use towards a real job was exciting to her. She pinched herself to check if all this was real. Maybe the Covid working from home became a boon for her new job!
Six months had passed and Jyothi's daily routine had changed magically. Parvatam Mami took over the kitchen and that was a big relief. Her mother-in-law served her a second round of tea with biscuits every morning. Her son spent more time with his grandparents who dropped off and picked him up from the school bus stop and helped him with his homework. Her husband Sampath picks up groceries and vegetables as needed from the market. Wow what a change her job had brought to her life. She got ready to call her friend Hema who was in a similar boat stuck at home after having topped her Chemical engineering class. She wanted to encourage Hema to find a similar job working from home.
