Welcome back!

I have to welcome myself back on my own blog as I had great difficulty in getting in all these past 11 days.

with help from my son, Ananth, I am back!

Discipline it is again.

I have seen many servant maids come and go.
Those who did good work were never regular! 2 days they would come and 4 days they would take unannounced offs. Some story about a granny who died twice before, conking off yet another time, would be the lame excuse with a request for some advance to meet some urgent ritual expenses. This went on and on with as many maids I pressed into service.
Those who dint work properly too never came regularly!!

I was in search of that perfect maid who would come to work, come rain or shine.
I used to get so upset at their demands and irregularity that I preferred to do all the top work on my own. This went on for 2 years and I would feel tired all through the day.
It was so difficult to work at the bartan, kapda and jhadoo poncha.
It was after a while I realized how much labor-oriented it was to work at all this. I started appreciating their stamina to do all these jobs in one go whereas I would take breaks between doing vessels, sweeping and mopping.
I kept praying for an angel to rescue me from this work though my husband would try and help whenever he could. There were times when I might have felt he could help with more work. It was quite selfish of me to expect too much from anyone.

Then my angel came one day just before the dasera of 2008. She was told her jobs so that there is no khit pit later. Come what may she would do the jobs for the day. Only she would come in at any time it was convenient for her! but come she would which was such a big relief. If she came in the late hours then she would just do the vessels. Its been like this till today which is a pretty long time for anyone to stick around one house. For my part I would always look for opportunities (read festivals) to give her a bit of extra money as gift and good sarees. She would not eat anything. Nor would she drink tea or coffee. strictly one time work so that I am not also required to supervise her work twice or thrice in a day.

Since she would come each day I would be tempted to give her more work but paid her extra. There came a time when she said she may not be able to handle extra work. First I felt very angry. But on second thoughts I felt it is good we draw the line somewhere for ourselves too. She was doing the contracted work (*no washing of clothes though) everyday without fail and that should be fine with me. The biggest positive factor was that she will come for work. She did when there was flooding in our street up to the hips! She came wading through slush to work. Whenever I get angry I force myself to think of her coming on the days when there was heavy rains or when she had fever, she would insist she must clean the vessels at least.
Still there is one issue which keeps cropping between us. She comes in anytime from 10.30am till 7pm. As a result I could not move out or ask my aged mother to keep an eye which was impossible as age makes my mom too tired to monitor such activities for long.
Someone had to be home. Was I asking for too much from her? Coming on time would save both of us so much bother of waiting. I could wait till a specific hour and go out for my own work.
Of recent she seems to have realized that even I have to go out and she cant keep me waiting each day.
This past week she has been coming in by 11am which is fine.
We think is it such a big issue at all worth mentioning on a blog. It is. Because this is also a part, nay an important part, of our daily lives.

*I bought a washing machine to take off the load of washing clothes by hand. I felt very liberated and free from day one of using it. But I had to dry the clothes. If the clothes were dirty I had to remember to scrub them before putting them in the washer! Yet it was a huge comfort for me. I could run it anytime I wanted to. As a rule we wash clothes each and every day without fail. No accumulating of soiled clothes.
Then there was this question of which brand to go in for our washing machine.
all were priced more or less the same. I checked with some relatives who owned washing machines for their after-sales services.
I went with the TVS Whirlpool brand. I am glad I did that. It has such a lovely servicing team when the machine conks off. I get a response the same day. The machine is repaired the same day.
I remember on the eve of a pongal day in 2007 I think, my washing machine went kaput. I rang the toll free number. They said since it was a festival holiday it could be after 2 days yet they would try. But try and repair it the next day if possible. I dint believe they would manage to send a man on pongal, an important festival in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. I really felt touched and this alone has never made me go in for any other brand in exchange schemes. I have retained my machine for the past 12 years with an AMC in place as the warranty period got over long back.
Its not the brand but the after sales service which is important.
It is not the job or the person but the assurance of both.
These are small issues but these small assurances and comforts are invaluable. Often I end up asking myself whether it is good to depend so heavily on another person. The answer I get from within is - as long as this person wants to lend her services for money it is alright. Just sit back and relax while the going is good. Deal with the problem when it arises but dont kill yourself worrying about it!

I think I more than made up for my longish absence!
Cheers!
Mahalakshmi