Humans and their many labours

As I began composing this weeks column it dawned upon me that its been exactly a week since I was last at my writing desk Last Thursday after having finished a 2000word essay I had begun on Monday and after having dispatched my column from a bus I began a parttime job as an archivist at a private collectors libraryBesides cataloguing books my work involved some heavy lifting a good amount of sweeping and sometimes ended with my colleagues and I unwinding in a swimming pool Last Saturday I also put in four hours as a farm hand helping out a friend with the first harvest of Gala applesI decided to unwind on Sunday and cooked a veal biryani that turned out to be enough for ten people My column was delayed today because I spent the morning babysitting a friends child so she could get on top of her colossal chores Its been a crazy week spent commuting on public buses eating what are termed here as workers lunches going up and down a mountain knitting in my free time and waking up between 615 am and 7 am because Ive been assigned plantwatering duties in the absence of my inlawsYou would think that all this inbetweenness this toandfro this constant shifting of work profiles between intellectual labour physical and emotional would have tampered with ones ability to access ones consciousness a prerequisite when one regards oneself as a writer And yet its possible Ive written much more than I had in the weeks beforeI carried my new Moleskine and the pages have been filling up I have written in the pauses between intense living I have been documenting how I have been inhabiting time how I have been labouring away in order to earn a living that translates to something more substantial When I did the Math it turned out that what I had been earning in India was sufficient for the standard of life there It wasnt much but because I could easily keep my costs low it was enough Here the same amount is insubstantial It must be supplementedHowever in the absence of my command over either German or Italian my options are limited But Im not complaining Im genuinely excited to be doing all kinds of work and it excites me to know that I live in a region where people respect work and are not afraid of itNo one sees particular kinds of labour as being beneath them for example People who may work in an office will also work in a field if they need to While the pay is obviously not equal there is still value for all kinds of work and in general you are less prone to being exploited by people If you are asked to help out with something you are generally compensated for your timeIts a new feeling for me Its new to work also with people who are extremely rich but who have no qualms in doing laborious work that is physically demanding They dont have minions around to give orders to because people are not treated like slaves That to me is already a sign that there is dignity to labour Also because I have a stronger sense of self I also know better than to allow myself to be defined by what I do I see my body as capable of doing many things I exercise regularly so that my body cooperates with me better And I treat all work I am given as graceWhen I return to my desk I bring with me all that I have learned from the various roles I have been performing I dont ever resent that I didnt marry rich In fact I love that I partnered with someone who also has no compunctions working with his hands who respects my capacity to perform different kinds of labour and who does what he can to make my life easierIts been a week that has been punctuated by moments of sheer raptureI was nourished by many small things the way I was guided by both my partner and his employer in terms of how to pick Gala apples how to understand what the desired colour must be and how to harvest them respectfully and most significantly what the act of looking while harvesting means or suddenly encountering a brilliant work by Louise Bourgeois while cataloguing art books and learning about her earliest attempts at sculpture or understanding through babysitting how remarkable it is for young children to evolve their own vocabulary a set of words they invent linguistically to denote either desire or direction and what it means to be an immigrant body in a foreign landDeliberating on the life and times of Everywoman Rosalyn DMello is a reputable art critic and the author of A Handbook For My Lover She tweets RosaParxSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individuals and dont represent those of the paperCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news