The biggest woe of women today? No, it’s not their husbands (they come a close second, though), it’s their maids. House help have existed for a long time, but seems like they are no more, a help. The modern maid has far more important things on her mind, than to help you with daily chores. Hiring a maid is no different from corporate hiring. Apart from salary, she has to be given certain perks if you want to retain her. Considering the demand and supply, the negotiating power is clearly in her hands. A maid is high maintenance, so commit to her only if you can afford to provide fancy sarees (and mind you, they have to be new, not your hand down’s), home appliances, school fees for her kids, latest gadgets etc and not to forget a big fat bonus. If the following is a regular account in your daily log, then beware, seems like your human resource is depleting you off all your resources (physical, mental and financial)
Your life is dictated by her schedule. She decides when she can spare time for you and you have to make yourself available then. You can’t expect to go out peacefully. Checking your watch a million times, you begin to understand how Cinderella must have felt. As the hand moves closer to the given time, heart pounding you rush home. Caught in traffic, little beads of perspiration start to form on your forehead, as you think of her wrath and how she is going to make you pay (or rather clean) for it. Even the sight of your family, whom you haven’t seen for twenty years, won’t bring you as much joy, as seeing your maid waiting at your door step, will.
Her attitude is no less than that of a movie star. She religiously turns up much later than the appointed time and some times just not turn up at all. Hard pressed for time and having waited long enough for her, you start scrubbing the pile of dirty dishes (a lot harder than necessary) when you hear the doorbell. Opening the door, you see that she has finally decided to grace your house with her presence. Instead of hastening to work, she strolls in swishing her designer sari. You start giving her instructions and her phone (a high end model) starts buzzing. Signing to give her a minute, she takes the call and saunters off to the balcony, to chat in privacy. Irritated you get back to the dishes as her giggles float through the air. After a good twenty minutes, she lazily returns back to work, by when you would have almost finished the dishes.
Pleased to see half her work done, she makes up her mind to try to finish the rest, that is provided it’s your lucky day, cause her friend might just turn up to distract her further. She then picks up the mop, humming her favourite song, and stylishly tosses it around on the floor, leaving the dust and dirt as it is and whatever little dust the mop manages to touch, she safely tucks it away under your furniture. While she does her shabby work, you can’t rest either, having to prepare coffee for her according to her taste. You need to be careful what you feed her as well, if it doesn’t suit her refined taste buds, she won’t hesitate to criticize your culinary skills and worse, take a day off complaining of food poisoning.
Irritation builds in you, as you follow her around showing her how to do things and try to get work done. It’s important that you watch how you speak to her, one harsh word or rise in tone and she will walk out that door and never look back. Women fear their maid far more than they fear their mother in law. After all the hard work, what adds insult to irritation is when a courier guy rings the bell and on seeing you (looking run down; hair disheveled, hands covered with soap, soiled pajamas) and her (looking immaculate; designer sari, painted nails, neatly combed hair and a touch of bright lipstick) is confused as to who the lady of the house is!
As you close the door behind her and pop a blood pressure pill, you wonder if she is actually worth all this trouble.
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