RADHA MAUSI

She is petite, bow legged yet strong. An illiterate, blind in one eye with a heart of gold. She is my masseur.

We women are plagued by our own hormones from the time of puberty. Skin pigmentation, bulging waist, unwanted facial hair, cellulites to name a few. The adage ‘Beauty is skin deep” wasn’t made just like that. If not, then the beauty and cosmetic industry would not have been thriving in our country. We have specialists in every field conceivable – under eye pouch specialist, laugh line specialist, T-zone specialists!! I want to relate an incident that happened some years back. I was in a beauty parlor in Bangalore. This lady walked in…she was a labourer. She said she wanted to do something for her eyebrows as everyone does. And the beautician said that it would cost her 20 bucks, which the lady promptly gave it to her. Halfway through the procedure, the lady fainted! After tiding through the initial shock, she was revived. Asked if she had eaten anything, she said she had saved the money to get her eyebrows done! Yeah, beauty is such a big business.

Not everyone can afford to go to the Spas, Salons or beauty Parlors. When I migrated to Mumbai, I found out that the ‘massagewali bais’ were available dime-a-dozen. No wonder Mumbai is glamour personified. I had tried massages in various Ayurvedic centers in resorts and clubs but they have always left a bitter taste. So, I hired a personal masseur. And Radha mausi came into my life quite unexpectedly this January when an acquaintance mentioned about her to me.

I became a fan of her massaging skill from the start. She is a mid-wife too and her knowledge about woman’s body can put a gynecologist to shame. She can identity which muscle or which nerve is giving me trouble. When she is working on the troubled nerve, I have to literally bite into the pillow from yelling out loud. Yet, there is no residual pain afterwards. What she actually does is like a lymphatic draining, which detoxifies the body. She is solely responsible for eradicating my cellulites….that means a lot to a woman. I was so elated that I went out and bought a couple of shorts to wear. She is very practical too. She says-“We used to eat good food and drink clean water in our villages…that’s why we are still healthy. But, when you are getting everything which is adulterated, how can you people be healthy?” There are a few home remedies she uses for getting rid of ‘vaath’, which are ingenious. She sometimes uses some English words while speaking which amuses me….how certain English words have replaced our native dialect!

Once, I met her at the local market and she couldn’t recognize me. Next, when we met she said,-“Didi, I was not able to recognize you.” I said, - “Lady, I was dressed!” She laughed till she had tears in her eyes and said,-“No Didi, aapko nazar lagegi.” Today, she has grown from being just a masseur to my well wisher, my beautician, my dietician, sometimes my physician, a cook (She taught me to make bajra rotis, the gamti style) and a motherly figure. Everyone calls her ‘mausi’, but I call her ‘maa ji’….a truly awe inspiring woman.