Real Life Comedy

Why Did You Not Do M.A.?

Padma was her name. Our maid servant, during our childhood. A dark complexioned pretty girl with smart brains!! God had not been too kind to her and had given her a life of poverty. Her parents sent her to school with the little means they had. Padma must have been in grade 3 when her teacher punished her and that was the end of Padma’s formal education.

Padma gave up school and joined her mother and elder sister in their work. They worked as part time maids in various houses in South Delhi, one of them being ours. So Padma started working for us in her teens.

She was a lively person with an enthusiastic approach towards life. She tried to pick up English words while hearing conversations amongst people. Fantastic was pronounced as “onetastic” and beautiful as “bootiful”. She knew the alphabet and the fact that A, B, C, D,…, M,….,Z was the sequence for the alphabets.

She was fortunate when it came to her marriage. She married a well read person who was very caring. He had completed one year of MA (Master of Arts) after his B.A. degree. She was happy with her married life and continued working for some years thereafter.

One day towards the last days of her tenure with us, she asked me about my qualifications. I had completed my Chartered Accountancy (C.A. for short) by then. I told her I am a C.A. She was shocked to learn that I was ONLY a CA. She questioned me, “But only CA, were you not able to do MA?” I was taken aback and was at a loss of words for a minute. It did prove her intelligence and she was so right to comment the way she did as “C” is definitely closer to “B” and “M” is at a much higher level in the alphabet pyramid!!!