It was the period after we moved to Chennai, from New Jersey. Having lived our entire married life in NJ till then, we were determined not to employ any house maid/servant (as Indians love to use) for our house work. We lived that way for 5 years in India, taking care of our own house work, with out any external assistance. (Here, I have to acknowledge the contribution my wife had to make, given that I had unpredictable work hours, sometimes 14 hours a day.) Of course, quite a few of our friends, specifically those from New Delhi and northern states considered us to be pathetic for doing our own work, but that is a topic for another day! :) Then, we moved to an apartment right opposite to our parents. Their house help (it was a she) had just been waiting for that moment, as I came to realize. She desperately wanted to provide her services for us too. Given her family situation, where any additional income helps this divorced woman to get her kids through college, we agreed. But, given our US-bred attitude, we wanted to enforce a six day working week for her, as also conditions such as she will not empty our trash can and so on. This opened the genies bottle, in two ways,. 1. Now she thinks taking unannounced day-offs will be something we will be ok with, given our understanding of the suffering classes. 2. My kids think cleaning the trash can is her job, given that she is being paid for the same. I have not still given up, trying to convince them that cleaning up behind ourselves is OUR JOB, not any third persons, whether paid or not. Which, but, makes her insecure, from her point of view. Having drivers, gardeners, house maid/servant, coolie, peons... Given a situation that prevails in countries such as India, is it right? Or is it wrong? Particularly when these people are desperately hanging on to the so-called moneyed class for sustenance and survival? More particularly, when the moneyed classes then exploit such people too... I screw you, you screw me?
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 10:23:54 +0000