Me and My Maidservant

The other day an advertisement on TV caught my attention. About business ideas or was it domain names? Anyway, this lady was conducting training course for maidservants. The highlight was they were being taught how to excuse themselves from work, amusing, but how true when it comes to leave-taking-excuses all maids have the same excuse.

For every housewife in India, maidservant is a hot topic of discussion. Our day begins with the thoughts will she come today? If she does come, will she be in a mood to do some extra work or will she abstain from the regular duties. We all tread very carefully around her, not to offend her. We think twice before saying anything. My mil greets hers with a hot cup of coffee. My mom, and many others I know, has two maids, so one covers for the other in case of leaves. One lady pitches in doing one of the maid's chore, in case she needs any extra work to be done. Gone are the days you deduct from salary in case of absence. I know of a lady who refused to grant leave to her maid, result? The maid quit, of course, do we have any say in it? In Mumbai, the servants talk not only about salary, but also number of leaves per month and diwali bonus. One of my maids used to crib that I dont cook at home during festivals (we go either to my in-laws or parents place), she doesnt get any pindi vantalu. I made it a point to get something for her on those special days. She also had well-manicured nails, I always wondered how she managed. Well her work spoke of it, if you get my drift.

My experience with my current maid is unique. She has been working for me for past 6 yrs, a record as far as I know in my circle. She is very hard-working, loyal and a conscientious worker, who hardly takes a day off. She is very flexible and doesnt mind any extra work. Doesnt ask for anything extra either. I should be happy, you say? Well, while I am glad that she is sincere and loyal, her conscience is too much for me to handle. Some days, I will be busy with something else and I ask her to skip mopping, she compensates by washing the balcony with extra care. End result, I have not saved any time. When we come back from a vacation, she sweeps and mops with extra care and takes ages to complete the task, result I end up waiting for her to leave to take rest after a tiring journey home. She mops the floor, especially the frequently used areas, at least twice (hubby says three to four times) which sometimes becomes tiring to watch. Of course, I do have a neat and shining floor, as is my kitchen. She doesnt talk much, no gossip for her. So end result I am always the last one to know of the happenings in our building. She has her quirks, though. Everything has to be jumbo size for her. She wants a big scrubber, big bucket, big broom etc.. She is very brand specific - only Pril, Lysol and Harpic for her. No other product will do. Given the end-product I dont mind either.

Coming from US, I found it difficult to adjust to concept of servants. Once there, I got used to being independent, doing chores whenever I was free. Now, my day has to be planned around her timings. I have to ensure that I am home when she is expected, else mess everything up. Of course the timing is not accurate, it is literally any time in a 2hr framework, if I am lucky. Sometimes I get vexed with this dependency and am tempted to be independent but not courageous enough to take that step. To tweak a well-known saying, "Maids - cant live with them, cant live without them"