She was a retarded village girl of 25. She was brought in as a housemaid by her aunt who was a cook. This is not a girl whom anyone would employ at home in any capacity. After much resistance from so many sides, this maid was permitted for the sake of the aunt, the cook. The girl was slow, very slow. She would take three times longer than anyone else to sweep a room or wash clothes or utensils. She was completely harmless. She excelled in a few items of work such as making coffee. She made delicious coffee, but she was impossible in any other work. Whatever she did or did not do, one could not explain anything to her as she met such efforts with dumb, dull resistance. Nor could we ask her to hasten any work.
She was constitutionally incapable of comprehension or changing her ways. No one knew what her thoughts were. Someone was interested in knowing what she thought, especially what she considered about her own self. The enquiry revealed something more than a wonder. The housemaid considered herself intelligent and capable. More than that, it was her considered opinion that no one in the house could match her intelligence or capacity. It was a revelation to the person who discovered it. She could not communicate her findings to anyone else. Everyone laughed at her ‘discovery'. No one could bring himself to believe that this stupid idiot could harbour such notions.
The maid reached the age of thirty. Marriage was not discussed as a possibility for her. The person who ‘discovered' her took pity on her and tried to persuade her to change her attitudes and be qualified to be a maid in town. It was a great moment in the life of the person who tried to persuade the maid. She discovered how proud the girl was of her rural life. Outraged at her outburst, the lady told the girl, "If you are stubborn, you have to go back to your village and be carrying straw bundles from the field." A finer instalment of the girl's rural edition came out, "Well, I am not ashamed of it. I am proud of it, in fact." The lady was speechless. Those who have stood at the frontiers of human mind will know that this is the same language of mental arrogance which cherishes its Ignorance and looks down upon the Divine Grace and its benevolence.