Gurugramwale: The privilege of the white rose

A labourer’s gift from his sister

Pawan’s gamcha is dusted with cement. So are his hands. His yellow t-shirt has holes.

Pawan’s sister - who lives in Bihar - sent him the rakhi, enclosed in a letter, about two weeks ago. (HT Photo)

And it is impossible to ignore the white rose on his left arm.

“This is my rakhi,” he says, referring to the recently concluded morning of Raksha Bandhan when sisters tie a decorative thread around their brothers’ wrists.

“Although this is not what really happened,” says the young gentleman while loading a cement sack on the back of a fellow labourer, here on a Gurugram roadside. “My sister, Mamta, lives far away, in Bihar.”

The rakhi, he reveals, was enclosed in a letter she sent him about two weeks ago. “She mailed it many days ago to make sure I would have it on the day of Raksha Bandhan.”

In his mid-30s, Pawan’s wife, too, lives in Bihar. His sister is half his age. She is already married with two kids.

“She is happy with her husband, I think,” mutters the brother.

Traditionally, a brother presents his sister with a gift in exchange for the rakhi. “I did gift her something,” he says, suddenly blushing. “I sent her a money order of one thousand rupees.”

Looking at the rakhi’s white rose around his wrist, the labourer says, “It looks more like a barf ka gola (ice ball)... I shall not take it off, and will have it as long as it holds.”

He now focuses his attention on the cement sacks. The white rose stands out on his wrist, as if it had a separate, more privileged existence, than of its wearer.