Tuesday, April 12, 2005

The domestic help is on leave. For two months, she said. She has to take care of certain rites for her dead father. She got me a substitute who drives me senile every morning for the 2 hours she takes to finish her work in my house.

After she proffered her name I tried repeating after her "Sririmalitha Vengalama Murugath.." or something to that effect.
"shart caat... Shardha" she came to my rescue.

Unlike the earlier one, she can't cook nor even help in the kitchen. All she likes to do is stand next to me. It's eerie! I tell her to get on with her cleaning and dusting and she gives me a strange look and laughs with a full throttle.

The first day, as I made breakfast, I asked her if she would like to have breakfast too. She nodded. That set the routine and I regretted my generosity. As I race to work, hungry (for lack of time to eat!) every morning, after cooking, filling water into bottles, my substitute help eats my food, drinks my water, uses my bathroom too, I suspect, and forgets to clean the house!

With guests from the in-laws side due to arrive in 2 weeks time for a long visit, I am wondering if a no help show is better than the one I have. Then visions of me slaving in the kitchen, wiping my brow and doing dishes, hit me and I growled menacingly at the hubby.

So the hunt has began for a new domestic help. And for peace in the house every morning. A dream maid who would feed me instead. One who my visiting ma-in-law will endure and train and shout at, as she sees fit. While I retain my sanity and smile indulgently from the living room.

Excuse me... here comes the first candidate I need to interview, to hand over drudgery.

9 Comments:

Blogger shub said...

oh yeah...this is one never-ending thing!!
after finiding one with great difficulty..all seemed okay...until after 3 weeks i caught her stealing :(
good luck:)

10:36 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Woah man! Good luck!

1:44 pm  
Blogger anumita said...

shub: You bet! One needs the right stars to get a good help! Stealing? We compulsorily have photos and addresses of all domestics helps here and need to submit the info to the cops. Maybe you should do that too. They wouldn't dream of stealing then.

kahini: Thanks. And your name's beautiful.

2:47 pm  
Blogger shub said...

:-) :-) :-)
yeh hai india meri jaan!
:o)

3:11 pm  
Blogger GratisGab said...

YOu poor thing..! Ma-in-law and no-maid is a BAD combination. Good luck!

Imagine poor me, no maids et al. Once you get a good Nanny though, they help out a lot in everything else too. Problem is I want a Nanny without a baby!

8:30 pm  
Blogger Twin-Gemini said...

Getting a helpful maid is indeed a difficult task. My mother still has problems in finding a stable help.

12:36 am  
Blogger anumita said...

shub: I love India!

gratisgab: Thank you for sympathizing. It's double ma-in-law! Her sis is coming too and the hubby's sis!
You telling me to have a baby for the nanny who might help? well...

twin-gemini: Glad you understand. Thanks for dropping in.

12:14 pm  
Blogger Pallavi said...

haha I still do not have a maid.. drudgery it is ... lucky you !!

1:20 pm  
Blogger anumita said...

Pallavi: I know, I know. Don't rub it in. You are really amazing the way you manage everything. When will I learn? I am too bloody lazy!

1:44 pm  

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