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The ‘Hobbit’ with a heart of gold
Pathmavalli is the sole cleaner in charge of all the toilets at the Convention Centre. She works weekdays from 6 am to 4 pm. “By starting early, I can rest early and spend time with my husband,” she says. Before cleaning the toilets in the mornings, she goes to her storeroom where she keeps a portrait of Lord Ganesha for spiritual protection. Then she puts some holy ash on the portrait and on her forehead to keep her safe through the day.
Pathmavalli D/O S R, 60, bends to mop the remaining water on the toilet seats. She then props herself up and inspects her ‘battleground’.
Satisfied, she smiles, picks up her equipment and readies to leave. Then some girls burst into the toilet, giggling, but all of this is cut short.
“Go out! Use the toilet upstairs!” she screams and waves the mop in the air. The students walk out, with a look of fear mixed with anger drawn across their faces.
It is just another day for the infamous fierce cleaner of the Convention Centre. Students like Prashant Ashoka, 20, [correction appended] a final-year Mass Communication student, refer to Pathmavalli as the “hobbit who terrifies us”.
Some may think she is plain mean as she raps on their cubicle doors incessantly, but she says she just wants to make sure that people do not smoke in cubicles.
When it comes to Pathmavalli, there is more than just what meets the eye. She does not look her age, and her journey has hardly been etched on her skin. Yet Pathmavalli says she has no secret to her youthful looks. “I don’t do anything. Maybe it’s in the genes,” she says, as she eats her noodles in the canteen.
Her voice sounds naturally loud and coarse, so students think that she shouts all the time.
She leaves this reporter to grab hot tea and hurries back.
Pathmavalli has worked for a total of 15 years; first as a carpark supervisor, then a cashier and as a security guard. I can’t stay in one job for too long. It gets boring.”
Then she came to the polytechnic to be a cleaner. “This is my fourth year. Not easy you know, not easy.”
Pathmavalli has withstood bullying from the students, and she recollects the time a student slammed the door on her finger. “My nail came out. It was so painful. But I cannot scold them.
“The students don’t understand that when the floor gets wet, it gets slippery. If they fall, I am afraid they may get into a coma. I fell a few times myself,” she says, showing this reporter the bruises on her arms. Pathmavalli also broke her kneecap on the job.
She says she has to shout because some students do not bother even if she tells them nicely. “But it’s only out of concern,” she says.
“You can always enjoy later. Smoke in the toilet la, have sex in the toilet la. Later on how? Young people don’t understand. Studying is very important.”
As she sips on her tea, Pathmavalli leans forward to look at a group of students sitting at the next table, laughing together.
Correction appended: Prashant Ashoka is 20, not 21.
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