Now which kid, who has taken birth and grown up in India, doesn't know the importance and materiality of a housemaid in our homes? The "Baai" factor has been one of the driving forces of households in our country since ages. The morning is now, almost synonymous to the bell ringing, signifying the arrival of the housemaid. The afternoons are similar, when the moment you lie down on your bed with the intention of a peaceful afternoon nap, the bell rings again. But, this interruption in our rest never disturbs us mentally. In fact for mothers across the nation, this ringing of the bell is like the relief they get on cleaning their child's room. It satisfies them to the utmost extent and creates an atmosphere of happiness and euphoria.
Today, the most dreaded sentences spoken in an Indian household include the housemaid announcing her going back to her "gaaon", or a leave of a couple of weeks. Other notable ones which give spine chilling goosebumps include the demand of a raise or a "bonus". Such sentences create a sense of horror among the family members and an awkward silence immediately creeps in the house. One of the worst nightmares of the mothers is standing on the road at the peak hour of "baai mobility" and calling out to different ones to negotiate on several terms and conditions. After a considerable amount of hard work and arbitration, does one find a suitable domestic help. This is one huge reason we still have cold feet on imagining the life in the West, without much of a domestic help available easily.
Some unfortunate incidents do happen like when the housemaid becomes kleptomaniac and cause pilferage of small and insignificant household material like clocks, spoons, utensils etc., eventually moving on the more organized stealing and crime. Some more unfortunate ones happen, but this time for the housemaids, when they get employed at someone like Shiney Ahuja, considering it to be a great opportunity to be working at a movie star's. Some people curse their fate for having to cope up with a maid who is legendary at being clumsy, with dropping everything off while mopping or spoiling dirty water everywhere. Some even worse cases, especially with little children at home, include those where the housemaids look like weird Apparitions and can scare off heart patients and pregnant women to death just by mere visibility.
But to be very honest, some exceptions are always there and yeah, there are people out there with the hands of Gods over them, who have managed to continue the same maid for over 20 years. Hats off to those and very Best of luck to the rest!:)
Today, the most dreaded sentences spoken in an Indian household include the housemaid announcing her going back to her "gaaon", or a leave of a couple of weeks. Other notable ones which give spine chilling goosebumps include the demand of a raise or a "bonus". Such sentences create a sense of horror among the family members and an awkward silence immediately creeps in the house. One of the worst nightmares of the mothers is standing on the road at the peak hour of "baai mobility" and calling out to different ones to negotiate on several terms and conditions. After a considerable amount of hard work and arbitration, does one find a suitable domestic help. This is one huge reason we still have cold feet on imagining the life in the West, without much of a domestic help available easily.
Some unfortunate incidents do happen like when the housemaid becomes kleptomaniac and cause pilferage of small and insignificant household material like clocks, spoons, utensils etc., eventually moving on the more organized stealing and crime. Some more unfortunate ones happen, but this time for the housemaids, when they get employed at someone like Shiney Ahuja, considering it to be a great opportunity to be working at a movie star's. Some people curse their fate for having to cope up with a maid who is legendary at being clumsy, with dropping everything off while mopping or spoiling dirty water everywhere. Some even worse cases, especially with little children at home, include those where the housemaids look like weird Apparitions and can scare off heart patients and pregnant women to death just by mere visibility.
But to be very honest, some exceptions are always there and yeah, there are people out there with the hands of Gods over them, who have managed to continue the same maid for over 20 years. Hats off to those and very Best of luck to the rest!:)
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1 comments:
Guess there are two sides to every story of a gharwali and a maid in India. I think what would make things easy for the gharwali to do things herself would be mops and brooms with long handles, washing machines for clothes and hot water for dishes. Once the maid knows the gharwali isn't dependent on her whims, once the gharwali understands it is hard work, it will be a level playing field.
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