The roll(e) of the Beedi….

Tulsi was her name and in Tulu people would address her as Tholasi. Considered a feminist of her times, she had brought in a revolutionary change in her family, which indirectly impacted our family. The cause for concern back home was the new found economic independence of Tulsi and the impact of the same was extended to our family home. Tulsi and her entire family showed disinterest in working at the family house as domestic workers and this caused conflict. They withdrew their services from all daily chores of the family as my father grew worried about the land that was allocated to the family and the thatched house that was part of the agreement for the stay. Curiosity would make me wander around the area where Tulsi’s house was, so as to get a glimpse of her and understand the work she did and study the person who caused tension at home.

Closer to the thatched house, I could smell the tendu leaves soaked in a huge mud pot with a wide mouth, more like the traditional ‘urli’ back home. The smell was unbearable and hence I would hesitate to go close to the house. Added to that was the fear that my parents would get to know that we had wandered close to Tulsi’s house.

One of those luckier days had me catch a quick glimpse of Tulsi, as the dogs strayed towards her house and I used it as a pretext to move close to the thatched house. Seated cross-legged on the mud floor, with no back support and draped in a sari, she sat at a strategic space at the outermost section of the house and stared at me with disgust. I call it a ‘strategic seating’ because from where she sat, she could watch the people walking on the roads and also ensure she was noticed by all the passers by and the bus that trundled slowly up the hill. On her index finger was a golden nail, which was the artificial metallic nail that was used to roll the leaf and string it quick with a thread. The other tools that she used for beedi rolling was a pair of large scissors, a steel tool that was used to pack the end of the leaf, a jute tray, which looked more like the winnowing pan at home, a box that rested half the tray on its lid and a side tray where the beedis were rolled, presumably counted and laid. Evidently Tulsi was engaged in a different occupation as against what i had imagined it to be as a young girl. ‘Beeda’ is what we called the betel leaf which was stuffed with tobacco and betel nuts while what Tulsi was working on was the tendu leaf which was wrapped with tobacco shreds and rolled into a ‘Beedi’ or the Indian cigarette that both men and women smoked. So Tulsi was the popular Beedi roller of the town.

Every two to three days, Tulsi would walk out of the house and join a couple of friends as she carried the huge bag that had the counted beedi packs along with her to the office which collected them. She would ensure the entries were made right in her small book which was her account book and carry fresh stock of tendu leaves, tobacco and thread pools with her. Once a month, she would walk back hastily and happily with an additional bag of grocery for the house and the entire family would feast that day.

Gradually I observed, that Tulsi had started changing her outlook from being a sari clad shy, young woman to the bold and confident Tulsi who wore a nightie. This nightie would be worn at nights initially after work and gradually grew to be the official wear of Tulsi as she switched roles from being the maid to being the official beedi roller. This became the topic of discussion at home as Tulsi was considered one of the liberated women and the elders didn’t hesitate calling it a shame whenever they would see her soaking the tendu leaves in the yard in her nightie. Tulsi started wearing the nightie as she walked out of the house with her friends to deposit the rolled beedis and people called her an ambitious woman who would live single as no young man would want his bride to be ‘forward’.

What went unnoticed by many as I look back at it, is that Tulsi supplemented the household income, that the women of the family did not have to toil long hours in the larger house who gave the family shelter in return for hard labour. That she had learnt how to work from home, attend to daily chores of fetching water from the well, looking after the younger siblings, cooking and sweeping and mopping and yet devoting 8 hours of her time daily to rolling the beedis, to reach her target of 1000 beedis a day. Gradually the rest of the family had joined her too and she had in turn created employment for the entire family.

While saluting her efforts as a feminist, the employment in the beedi industry, which brought Tulsi companions, friendship, the chance to get out of her house once in two days with her friends, dress up in a nightie and also add money to her family income, snatched her life ahead of time. The exposure to long hours of unprotected and dangerous working conditions, the tobacco dust that was absorbed by her skin resulted in bronchial asthma and ultimately tuberculosis that killed her. The price Tulsi paid for emancipation, liberation and feminism as she rolled the Indian cigarettes that were filled with tobacco flakes and caused health hazards to the smoker and the beedi roller……