Saturday 3 February 2018

MAID IN INDIA!!


  • As soon as my domestic help enters my house today, she makes an announcement, ''Tai, I will not be coming for 15 days from 15th of this month, I need to attend my niece's wedding." God! Her words leaves me petrified! Imagine how your day would be if your maid doesn't show for a day, and here my maid is asking for a good fifteen days leave!
  • In present date, In India, almost every person of a family works to support it. When all the members are busy and fully occupied with hectic schedules, managing various household activities such as cooking, cleaning, taking care of house and kids become a taxing affair. Many times we find it difficult to keep a balance between household and professional activities.
  • In the past, extended families shared the chores but the new set up of nuclear families with just father, mother and children need the services of either a part time or a full time maid.
  • MAID...!!!! and the relationship we have with  her!!
  • If we try to lay out our set of relationships, I mean those people who contribute to our success in a job and in managing our home, we have to acknowledge one such important and analytical relationship that enables us to handle the work in and out of our house, yet we fail to even consider it.
  • Yes, the maid of our house.

  • If both parents are working, at times grandparents are pitched in with chidrearing but not without a maid.
  • It is not only an important relationship but also the most demanding one.
  • Not everyone is fortunate to find a maid who is a perfect fit in our homes.

  • In today's fast world this relationship is panic struck. None of us, the urban literates are used to doing manual labour work at home, nonetheless we somehow manage for few days in emergencies.
  • We sometimes use the words servant, Bai to describe her. We conveniently forget to think that she is a working professional like us who is paid her salary for her services. Many times we complain if she goes on long leave or comes late, though many other times we also  pay her more, when we are fully aware that finding a replacement would be difficult.
  • There are many examples of happy and cordial relationship with her where in the employer and the maid are genuinely fond of each other knowing perfectly that they are mutually dependent on each other.

  • In many cases, the maid behaves as though she is the BOSS of the house and is fully aware that she is INDISPENSABLE!! However many times such dependence is resented, but still we have to put  up with the  maid's attitude, thinking that we won't get a better help.The basis of such relationship is on the principle of 'Known devil is better than an unknown.'
  • The situation is viceversa also when a maid continue to work even if her services are not compensated fully thinking that she won't get a better employer.
  • We also cannot overlook the cases where in the maids turn out to be cheats, liars, thieves and so our relationship with her become all the more stressful. 
  • No matter what is the nature of our relationship, she has her own life, mostly coming from a poor and illiterate background, she lives hand to mouth. The fulltime one leaves her family and stay with us and the parttime one has to dash for her home and do the same errands all over again. Very few of us value that even she is the woman of her house with the same responsibilities of managing a home and a job.

  • I would like to  give a reference to my previous post 'The  unsung heroes of our homes' wherein I have  mention that a woman of the house sets an example to a corporate person, more or less like a General Manager, but again a General Manager cannot work without the support of subordinates. Certainly, a maid is our subordinate without whom we can't work efficiently.  
  • In today's world, a working woman has to struggle to get a maid and retain her while juggling between work and home. Many issues crop up while hiring a maid with whom we leave our house and kids.Her integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, efficiency ???
  •  
  • Thankfully now, various maid service agencies have come up which provides  prescreened, experienced verified maids. Most convenient platform to outsource domestic help. Having an accessible and reasonably priced maid  through this agencies have given some solution for working women. Moreover these agencies also provide professional cleaners, who can be hired on one time basis. These professional cleaners are a boon to us especially during the cleaning spree when our festival like Diwali is round the corner.
  • Nevertheless, I would say that our relationship with our maid is one of the most important ones among our other 'relationship network' because if she does not come 'IN'  to work at our house, we could not do our work 'OUTSIDE' it. 
  • A maid enables us to do lucrative work while she manages the household errands of cleaning and cooking. Depending upon the requirement and the economic status, each family has maids. A middle class with one or two, in case of welloff families and celebrities the number of maids exceeds the number of people residing in the house. 
  • We in India, cannot survive  without a maid!!
  • A bit of respect to her who make our daily domestic chores easy and hasslefree!!!

  • If YOU are reading this post even you will agree that you have grown up in India seeing a maid work at your home.
  • On that note, one more time.. 
  • I would like to draw your attention to my earlier post, yes, the very first post wherein I say that the stage is all set... for me to blog freely...... but only if my MAID IS IN!!!!         

  • As for now I have to start hunting for a temporary maid in the absence of my permanent one, lest I visualise myself for those fifteen days as ⏬ 


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