We complain about them, we sometimes want to wring their necks with our bare hands, but at the end of the day, we all know that we can't do without them. Monica Bakhle describes the phenomenon in each of our lives. Those women we simply call -- maids
We complain about them, we sometimes want to wring their necks with our bare hands, but at the end of the day, we all know that we can't do without them. Monica Bakhle describes the phenomenon in each of our lives. Those women we simply callu00a0-- maidsu00a0
You can very well imagine the significant rise in the status of maids in the recent past, for them to now merit a reference to the Tennyson masterpiece- albeit only the title.
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Maid happy: Sonali Kulkarni as the slightly randy bai in
Love Kichdi |
But jokes apart, I am yet to find any lady whose cup of woes does not runneth over with Maid tales. But think of all the cases where these actually come to your rescueu00a0-- go to a party where you need to make conversation with some ladies, slip in a line on maids and there you have a rocking conversationu00a0-- your worries of how to keep yourselfu00a0 riveted in conversations till the end of the party mysteriously disappears.
New to the housing complex? Just pick up the phone and ask help for a maid, and there you have just made your first friend. Waiting to befriend some mothers of your child's classmates from school? Well start a conversation around maids and there you have their attention.
So how did the 'Kapda-Katka-Bartan Bai' suddenly catapult to such an important status? I would attribute it to the rise in the number of working women today. We all know that it would take superhuman efforts to manage both careers and the home front without the able help of maids. I know for a fact that the reason I could work at one point of time keeping a toddler at home was because of the cook and the nanny, whom I trusted. Our jobs were possible because of them. With the rising dependence on them, there has crept in a sense of indispensability on part of the maids. However this, coupled with an increase in their standard of life and luxury level, has brought out a certain level of arrogance in them.u00a0 Why, today every maid necessarily has a TV, DVD player, fridge with a few up market ones even boast of a washing machine. The arrogance is visible when the maid refuses an advance previously asked by her, just because it is delayed. Or she returns the Diwali bonus given to her because it is much lower than her expectations. Some of them, knowing their indispensability, use arm twisting techniques to the hilt.
I was wondering amusingly that most of these maids who are barely educated up to primarily levels are now queens in the techniques of negotiation, comparable to any white collared employee. As a manager at work, if one is trying to deal with a disgruntled employee who is threatening to quit on account of his salary hike being less than his expectations, as a manager at home one is trying to deal with the maid in a similar situation.
Managing good maids is a highly challenging task. If you are wondering why the maids would generate adequate importance and curiosity around themu00a0-- the answer is straightforward. One has to admit whether we like it or not,u00a0 that today they are definitely an integral part of every household. The husband treads cautiously around his wife on the days the maid plays hookey. Children hurriedly ask for their long pending demands on the days the maid has been coming regularly.
In conclusion I would like say thisu00a0-- just like behind every successful man there is a womanu00a0-- behind every successful woman there is a maidu00a0-- the cleaner, the cook and the nanny and that's a status quo we're all quite happy with.
