Bheela’s Blog-009
17 January 2020
Episode 8 Recap
Oshin meets her new employer at the Nakagawa Lumber Mills. The place takes nearly half a day of boat journey from her village downstream Mogami river.
The Master and his wife are kind towards her, but her boss, Otsune, the head housekeeper, is rude. Oshin’s duties include helping to make rice, clean the kitchen area, and wash diapers in addition to babysitting. She has to carry the rather chubby baby on her back and look after him by way of strolling around the house. It is challenging work for a 7-year-old child. She has no option but to persevere, and she tries her best.
Episode 9
FLASHBACK CONTINUES
The day has finally ended. After washing diapers in the freezing water of river Mogami, Oshin continues carrying the baby at her back and walks around. It is dinner time. All the lumber mill workers line up and eat their dinner.
Oshin looks at them and feels very hungry. Her own dinner hasn’t yet been announced, so she walks away from the living area and continues to carry the baby. Finally, Otsune calls her. Oshin is happy to unfasten the baby from her back. The mistress tells her that she is done for the day and takes the baby from Oshin. Oshin is relieved and dead tired. This relief is a short lasted one! Otsune asks her to finish her dinner fast, as usual, in a loud voice. Oshin runs to the kitchen, picks her bowl, and fills it with rice. As she eats, Otsune tells her the next duty, which is to prepare the bath.
(There is a bathroom, meant for all the employees, which consists of a cemented tub and a furnace to provide hot water. Wood-fire is used to run the stove, which makes the bathing water warm)
Oshin starts the fire, but she is so tired that her eyes begin to droop, and her hands get loose. A man who was taking bath shouts to continue the fire so that water does not get cold. Oshin has absolutely no energy left; she somehow pokes the fire adding wood sticks.
She is about to reach her room, but Otsune stops her. Otsune asks her to take a bath and go to bed. Oshin is so tired that she does not want to take a bath. She tells Otsune that she does not need a bath. Otsune harshly tells her that she has to clean up the tub as the house’s rule is the one who takes the last bath must clean up. Oshin does not have any strength left to protest. She drags herself to the bathroom, somehow cleans the bathtub. The tub is tall for a child’s height to clean, but Oshin ties her kimono to her waste and bends all the way to do the cleaning.
She is too tired, somehow completes the job, reaches her room, and crashes on her floor bed. In her deep sleep, she says, ‘Mama! Mama!!’.
(We almost choke seeing her state. There is a limit to make a child do such hard labor.)
At the village, Oshin’s parents are working with straw bundles. Mother is worried for Oshin as she did not get any news of her reaching the workplace yet. Her other daughters are slightly older, but Oshin is only 7, so she worries for Oshin. Mother hopes the employers are kind towards her. The only consolation she has that Oshin would get to eat her fill as the family she has gone to, have a big business.
She worries that babysitting is a hard job for a 7 years old child. She wishes she could write and send Oshin a letter asking for her welfare. Father reminds her that Oshin can’t read either, so what would be the use of sending a letter across. The mother still hopes that someone could read her letter to Oshin and Oshin could take someone’s help to reply to the mother. She profoundly regrets sending Oshin without giving her any schooling of elementary learning. She dreams of Oshin getting a formal education.
(Oshin’s mother, a farmer’s wife, although illiterate herself, is a progressive woman. She wants her daughters to learn, get educated, and she wants to do her best to make her dream come true. This is true in rural India. Several women who could not study themselves aspire for their daughters’ education. They firmly believe that education can change life)
Oshin’s days were very hard, but she felt good to carry the baby and walk around. It gave her a sense of freedom. One day, she sees the children running towards the school, she couldn’t help herself and followed them. There is a board on the gate of a building, and it is written ‘Elementary School,’ but she could not read the words. She walks towards the building with the baby on her back. Naka sees her going out and calls, but Oshin doesn’t answer him.
She stands close to the classroom window where her age group children are reading from a book together. The Teacher writes some words on the blackboard and asks the student to read. All the kids reply together, ‘Today’s weather is good.’
The Teacher is delighted to get an answer from the students. He looks out of the window and observes that the weather has indeed improved much. He asks a boy to come up to the blackboard and asks him to write on the board. As the boy writes on the board, Oshin learns the words and repeats herself, ‘today’s weather is good.’
As she speaks, the Teacher sees her. She ducks to hide.
Meanwhile, at the lumber mill home, hell has broken loose. The Baby and Oshin are both missing.
Mistress is in panic and checks with Otsune. Otsune is upset with Oshin as she had indeed instructed her not to wander off. Mistress fears the worst if the kid and Oshin have fallen into the river. Otsune tries to calm her but is worried herself. Mistress decides to send her men to look for Oshin and baby. Otsune is scared and angry at the same time, she decides to teach Oshin a hard lesson.
Oshin, meanwhile, begins to walk towards home from the school building. She looks at the girls who are playing with rope. Two girls are holding the ends of the rope and rhythmically swing the rope. Other kids get in, skip, and get out of the swinging rope. (We played such games in our childhood, I was nostalgic when I saw this scene). Oshin is engrossed in watching them play, and suddenly the teacher comes close to her. She freezes. The teacher is very kind, and in a soft voice, he asks Oshin, where is she from?
Oshin apologizes and tells the teacher that she has never seen any school and just wants to know how a school looks. He asks her kindly how old she was. She tells him, ‘seven years.’ He thinks that Oshin should be in school at her age, and he keeps a hand on Oshin’s head with affection. Oshin then tells him that she is here as a baby sitter working with Nakagawa Lumber Mill’s owner. She requests the teacher not to complain about her; she promises never to revisit the school.
As the baby cries, Oshin realizes that it is the baby’s milk time. She gets alarmed and hurriedly returns home. Naka, the worker who rafted her from her village, stops her and takes her inside. He backs for Oshin and tells Otsune that Oshin got delays as she lost her way.
Otsune unties the baby, hands the baby to his mother, and starts slapping Oshin on her face. Naka tries to save Oshin, and Otsune gets further upset.
Oshin then faces Otsune directly, her cheek already swollen, admits her fault to Otsune, and challenges her to hit her. Otsune then controls her anger and tells Oshin never to do this again. She gives the basket full of soiled clothes to Oshin for washing. The mistress is asking Otsune not to be harsh on Oshin as she is too young.
Otsune then starts giving her reason for being strict. She says that she does not hate Oshin but wants to ensure that Oshin learns her job’s importance. It is for her own good that she understands what a job is all about.
(Japanese economy is in bad shape; it is also not easy to find jobs. Otsune, very strict and rude from outside, understands the workers’ financial condition. She knows that one mistake from a worker can result in loss of job and further misery)
The weather has improved substantially. The snow has melted. We can see a substantial amount of water in the river Mogami and the beautiful blooming flowers along its banks.
Oshin is washing clothes. The water is not cold anymore, so she enjoys playing with water as she cleans the diapers.
Suddenly she listens to a sound coming from some distance. This is the sound of a song sung by boatmen as they row their boats. She turns sad and her eyes are moist with homesickness.
PRESENT TIME
Oshin is sitting on the balcony of a hotel room adjacent to the Mogami river. She can hear the same song boatmen singing in the present time also. She tells Kei that the song is a Mountain Song. She never thought that she would ever hear it again!! She would listen to them singing as she did her washing as a child babysitter. Usually, the boatmen sing this song, which helps them struggle the boat up the river against its flow.
She then starts singing the song herself. Kei lovingly looks at her and smiles. He has never heard grandma singing. She tells Kei that at the present time, these songs are called Mogami River Songs. In her childhood, she knew that those were actually a series of chants. When she had a bad day (just like the one that day when she returned late), those songs would make her sad, and she would miss her home. At the same time, memories of her household were those of pain and suffering.
She thinks that after suffering so much as a little girl, she will handle any adversity that came her way…
But adversities continued…
FLASHBACK RETURNS
Oshin resumed her washing as the boatmen pass singing the mountain song. Later that day, the school Teacher, Mr. Matsuda, visited the Nakagawa Lumber Mill owner’s home where Oshin used to work. Oshin, seeing him, gets terrified. With baby behind her back, she hides next to a pile of timber logs.
She is scared if the Teacher would complain about her to the Master. She felt guilty for having gone to school when she had no right to do so.
Did the Teacher complain about Oshin to the Master?
Episode 10 is coming soon, and we will know…