Arunachala2013: One

Tiru Farm Guest Hose is 10km out of Tiruvannamalai. It came about because an Englishman by the name of John got to know the third son and put him through university. Then he built a large guest house which also houses the small kitchen and a free computer school for the children of the local villages. Then Mirabai came on the scene and was able to build a house for herself on the property, this is where I am staying. She has also purchased extra land for the family to use for farming and stops anyone building out her view.

The family of mother (Amma) and Father (Appa) have three sons, two of whom are married. The wives have come to live with the family and, I hate to say, are little more than slaves. They work from 5.00am till late at night seven days a week. The oldest son Balu is married to Priya, they have an 8 year old son by the name of Stethar. The middle son Logo is married to Kisspoo (sometimes sounds like Goosepoo) Kisspoo is due to give birth any day to their first child so she is unable to do any work. Mother had major surgery two years ago so is supposed to be on light work only, though I see no particular evidence of this. Most of the work is left to Priya who just works so hard every day that is it heart breaking to watch. The women never have any time to themselves, they can't read or write but are so lovely. It seems to me that women are essentially worked to death in this country, in these situations at least. The men are apparently very good at "organizing and supervising" the women at work, or so they tell me !

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Until a week ago the women were still doing all the washing by hand. In order to assist Priya with her workload Mirabai bought them their first washing machine, all of about 150 English pounds for her. So now all the washing is done in the machine but this just frees Priya up to do lots of other work. If she finishes her work at any given time she is sent out into the paddocks to do land work ! Oh and the other thing is that the women don’t get to actually use the machine, they have to ask Logo to come and turn it on for them….men’s work you know ! (How are the feminists doing here so far ??)