Waiting for some of my colleagues to arrive at Mumbai International Airport, provided the great opportunity to people watch as planeloads of passengers streamed out of the airport into a waiting India. In keeping with the rise of India as one of the world’s important economies, its visitors and returning residents brought with them explicit evidence of economic and social success: bulging suitcases, fashionable clothes and shoes, electronics and much more. One striking element was the enormous range of people from across the international, social, business, and religious spectrum that passed through that airport exit.
Standing quietly in a corner of the exit lounge I noticed a female member of the Airport janitorial staff also observing the crowd, her face slightly drawn in as she watched the stream of plenty pass her by. She was dressed in an Airports Authority provided uniform, complete with a simple but tasteful sari, a nice long sweater coat, and comfortable closed toe and well-soled shoes but still it was clear that she did not fully belong to the class of people walking by us. No doubt she benefits to some degree by her employment at a major international airport which is enormously busy at all hours of the night and day but her demeanour and expression indicated the possible existence of another life outside the airport, perhaps in some chawl or one of those tenement areas we would visit later in our trip. At one point her supervisor swung by and held a brief conversation discussing work shift issues in what I noted to be a very polite tone.
Every so often, spying some minor trash falling off a luggage cart, the housekeeper would step out from her place in the corner to sweep the lobby area with a long-handled, ergonomically sound, Swiffer-style floor-sweeping implement, a great improvement in of itself from its predecessors -- the handheld dirty floor rag and a bucket of equally grimy water or the 2 foot long traditional short broomstick or “jhadoo” that was most certainly not ergonomic. Clearly, her occupational work conditions have improved with respect to her work clothes, which lend a certain amount of respect to her person, and work implements, which demonstrate improved ergonomics and reduced manual and inhalation contact with unsanitary environmental conditions such as unhygienic and dusty floors.
Suddenly, a family of passengers passed through the lobby on their way to the main exit door: a harried mother travelling alone with a mountain of luggage, followed by her 6 or 7 year old feisty take-charge daughter pushing a cart herself, who was busy shepherding her mom in front and her baby brother behind, and of course the toddler brother pushing his own stroller but barely able to see over its top and weaving a crazy path across the lobby floor much to his sister’s chagrin. In that instant, the janitor immediately became animated and both of us broke into amused grins as we watched the hilarious progress of this family across the lobby and out the exit. After that brief piece of entertainment, the janitor turned to me and still smiling made the sapient, and in some sense proud, observation that the little girl was a tough cookie who would manage well in life!
It made me wonder what else the janitor was thinking about in making her remark. Did she have a young daughter who she hoped would someday do well in life? Was she thinking about how her own professional work conditions have improved over the years? At how she’s given more respect as a woman floor sweeper and dignified with a respectable uniform, treatment, and working implements, in a country that has traditionally held a challenging views of social class? It would appear there has been progress in India over these past 10 years yet some essential economic and social differences remain. The hope lies as always in the children of the future generation who are always able to draw a smile out of adults, and I suspect the janitor on some level thinks the same.
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