Winters used to be cold in England. We, my parents especially, spent them watching the wrestling. The wrestling they watched on their black-and-white television sets on Saturday afternoons represented a brief intrusion of life and colour in their otherwise monochrome lives. Their work overalls were faded, the sofa cover—unchanged for years—was faded, their memories of the people they had been before coming to England were fading too. My parents, their whole generation, treadmilled away the best years of their lives toiling in factories for shoddy paypackets. A life of drudgery, of deformed spines, of chronic arthritis, of severed hands. They bit their lips and put up with the pain. They had no option but to. In their minds they tried to switch off—to ignore the slights of co-workers, not to bridle against the glib cackling of foremen, and, in the case of Indian women, not to fret when they were slapped about by their husbands. Put up with the pain, they told themselves, deal with the pain—the shooting pains up the arms, the corroded hip joints, the back seizures from leaning over sewing machines for too many years, the callused knuckles from handwashing clothes, the rheumy knees from scrubbing the kitchen floor with their husbands' used underpants.
When my parents sat down to watch the wrestling on Saturday afternoons, milky cardamon tea in hand, they wanted to be entertained, they wanted a laugh. But they also wanted the good guy, just for once, to triumph over the bad guy. They wanted the swaggering, braying bully to get his come-uppance. They prayed for the nice guy, lying there on the canvas, trapped in a double-finger interlock or clutching his kidneys in agony, not to submit. If only he could hold out just a bit longer, bear the pain, last the course. If only he did these things, chances were, wrestling being what it was, that he would triumph. It was only a qualified victory, however. You'd see the winner, exhausted, barely able to wave to the crowd. The triumph was mainly one of survival. | Musim salju biasanya dingin di Inggris. Kami, khususnya para orangtua, dulu melewatkannya dengan menonton gulat. Gulat yang mereka tonton di televisi hitam-putih pada Sabtu siang menghadirkan riak gairah dan warna sesaat dalam kehidupan mereka yang selebihnya berwarna tunggal. Baju kerja mereka memudar, kain sofa--tak pernah diganti bertahun-tahun--memudar, ingatan mereka terhadap diri mereka sebelum datang ke Inggris juga memudar. Kedua orangtua saya, dan seluruh generasi mereka, memutar tahun-tahun puncak dalam kehidupan mereka membanting tulang di pabrik-pabrik demi upah yang buruk. Hidup sarat kerja yang menjemukan, rusuk yang membengkok, artritis parah, dan tangan kutung. Mereka menggigit bibir dan menahan nyeri. Mereka tidak punya pilihan, tetapi harus. Di dalam benak, mereka mencoba tidak peduli--mengabaikan hinaan dari sesama pekerja, tidak melengos terhadap ricauan gencar mandor, dan, khusus perempuan India, tidak berkeluh-kesah saat ditampar para suami. Tahanlah rasa sakit, mereka berkata kepada diri sendiri, hadapilah rasa sakit--nyeri yang menyengat tangan, sendi paha yang tergerus, nyeri mendadak di punggung akibat membungkuki mesin jahit selama bertahun-tahun, punggung tangan yang kapalan akibat mencuci baju, lutut rematik karena menggosok lantai dapur dengan celana dalam suami-suami mereka.
Ketika kedua orangtua saya duduk menonton gulat di Sabtu siang, dengan teh susu kardamunggu di tangan, mereka ingin dihibur, mereka ingin tertawa. Namun, mereka juga ingin sang jagoan, sekali saja, berjaya atas si berandal. Mereka ingin si penggertak yang berjalan sombong dan bersuara parau, menerima ganjarannya. Mereka mendoakan agar si orang baik, yang terbaring di kanvas, terjepit dalam pitingan dua jari atau mencengkam pinggang dengan kesakitan, tidak menyerah. Jika saja ia mampu bertahan sedikit lebih lama, menahan rasa sakit, menuntaskan perjalanan. Jika saja ia melakukan hal-hal itu, gulat kemungkinan akan seperti sebelum-sebelumnya, bahwa ia akan menang. Akan tetapi, kemenangan itu hanyalah secara aturan main. Anda akan melihat sang pemenang, yang kelelahan, hampir-hampir tidak dapat melambaikan tangan kepada kerumunan penonton. Kemenangan itu utamanya kemenangan bertahan hidup. |