Meet "Mary Vanilla"

"Mary Vanilla" is not her actual name of course, but it's the closest we can come to pronouncing her actual name. Mary Vanilla is beautiful. Drop dead beautiful. She is also a "Dalit", the lowest of the low - even lower than an untouchable. Upper Caste Indians (I prefer to call them Jackasses), will not even stoop to speak to women like Mary Vanilla. Traditionally, Dalits like her have the responsibility of cleaning out sewer ditches and latrines.

Let me tell you why Mary Vanilla is a "Dalit". She has very dark skin. That is a physical, social marker in India. But there are other "problems" with this beautiful woman. When she was ten, her parents got involved in a serious argument and her mother committed suicide by setting herself on fire - apparently the preferred method among women for suicides over here. A few months later, Mary's father died, leaving Mary an orphan. This is a serious situation now because Mary cannot prove she exists. There is no one with a birth certificate or any papers of identification for her now. Mary's Grandmother took her in, but only to clean house. She was not allowed to attend school. EVER. She is illiterate. She cannot read or write in any language. Ironically, Mary Vanilla speaks FLAWLESS English. She learned to speak a very difficult language on her own. She's the only Indian on campus that any of us can understand 100 percent of the time. She has a wonderful mind.

When she was fifteen, Mary Vanilla was married off to another Untouchable with a drinking problem. He lived long enough to encumber Mary Vanilla with two little boys before HE committed suicide by stepping in front of a bus - the preferred method of suicide for men. Mary Vanilla is now 28 years old. She has no home except the school campus. No other Indian man will ever marry her because she is no longer a "virgin".

She works for the school. She begins her workday at 7AM with 21 little girls who need to be dressed and have their hair braided and shepherded to school on time every single morning. Then Mary Vanilla works at the school all day running errands and being treated like a dirty mop by the Indian upper caste jackasses at the school. Let me think about that one. Nope. I think dirty mops get treated better than Vanilla Mary.

Then she goes 'home', cares for 21 little girls from 4PM - 9PM, getting them ready for bed and settled down. Then, she gets to see her little boy, Michael, if she's lucky. Her older boy, Stephen,  has been expelled from school for 'anti-social' and 'erratic' behavior. He's in Chennai and he won't last long there before he, too, steps in front of a bus.

We have an expression in India that we use about a hundred times a day. T.I.I. This is India. For Mary Vanilla, this is H.E.L.L.

This is the kind of story that keeps me awake at nights, typing my frustrations away. Oh. And I haven't even begun to tell you the story of the 22-year old girl who works in the library that the village kicked out of town because they think she's a whore.

Peace out. God bless India. And Vanilla Mary. These other gods on every corner are totally worthless.