Photo by - Endevourme
Every morning somewhere at around 9 o clock the doorbell rings. When I open the door I find her standing outside. 'She' is our maid.
I call out loud 'bai has come', and suddenly the house is on alert. All roomies are woken up. Beds are rolled up, newspapers are picked up and it feels like the day has really started. She washes clothes, wipes the floor and does some miscellaneous things (for which she charges 'extra'). Maids are necessary and here good maids are rare. So sometimes I wonder wheather she is for us or its the other way round.
When the first time she tried to talk to us she gave options,'kannada...? telugu...? tamil...?'and we kept nodding "no...no...no...", when we asked "hindi...?", it was her turn to say "no"! So we talk very less. She knows few words like 'paisa', which she happens to utter every month. Whenever soap is finished, she tells us with gestures that she is out of soap and then one of us has to run to gocery shop. We normally give sturdy clothes to her for washing cause she is a bit rough. Delicate clothes go to laundry. She also wipes the floor, then she puts ON the fan and the floor becomes clean and cool.
Being bachelors, all of us are tuned to universal vibes of confusion. So on some days there are no clothes to wash and some days there are too many. So she too has to adjust to this disordered nature of ours, which she does uncomplainingly. There are times when our maid becomes too sincere. We understand that it is time for increment.
She is the only feminine element in our house. Instinctively, this element brings tidiness and order. When outside, we see her many times, a small girl, her daughter walking along by her side. As per the protocol, we never smile. Her daughter looks more like a reduced xerox copy of hers. Now, when everyone is talking of young India, I am not sure what will happen to the little girl. Or she too will become what her mother is. Another maid and another maiden over for India.
