The Ire Of Ira

Ira is the name of our Indonesian help, who's a charm to be around.

She joined us some time last year and hails from the mountainous town of Yogyakarta. She's lovely, just as so many Indonesians are, and cant really speak much English, but we make do. If you've been following the Mama O Mama posts carefully, you'll notice that a number of posts stem from the hilarious stuff Mama tells Ira in her broken make-do Malay.

About 3 weeks ago, I was having breakfast and Ira, who's a generally very smiley and chatty person, was ranting about something to Mum. I just had to glance at Mum for her to start telling me about the story. Ira lives in Gombak, and her husband, who was here uptill some time ago, had to return to Indonesia for some visa formality, meaning that Ira lives in Gombak alone. Now they have Malay neighbours, and one of them is a man. A man who peeps through a peephole he's made using a hammer into a wall that lets him see when someone goes into the bathroom to bathe, namely Ira. Ira didnt know that there was a peephole, but she can recall hearing a loud thud one day. To her mind, nothing happened after that thud, but she later found out that the man had made a peephole. Its a tiny hole, and the cunning man covers it up using chewing gum, peeping through it when he knows Ira's going for a shower and covering it up when she's done (Ira's children are older than I am, just so you know). And this man is very old. So as you can imagine, we were all pretty disgusted about this. 

But here is why I am so glad we have Ira in our lives and I've had the chance to witness a woman like her. Ira found out. And was quite upset about it. Yknow what she did? Nothing. No police report, no complaint. No nothing. Instead, she took a hammer, and tore down the whole wall.

As the consequence of her action is that major, I am going to repeat it again. She tore down the wall. With a hammer. And the fun doesnt end there. You know what she did after that? She went up to that man and told him,

"If you have the balls to look, look at me properly. There is no need to hide."

Imagine. And you know what else she did? She went up and told the man's wife about her husband's activity. The man was so ashamed he couldnt do anything. He was embarrassed and so was the wife. Ira told them that she pitied the wife for having such a husband. The man did nothing about it.

I am so proud I know a woman like Ira, and that she's been sent to us to just add a dash of heroism to our lives.

Who needs Hollywood when heroes are all around us?

Ira, my hero.