Much ado on a Sunday

We let the maid leave on Sunday. Her background seemed a little shady - apart from the earlier tale of thievery and her constant fibbing during her two weeks with us, we got fresh reports about her that wasnt very complimentary.

On Sunday, after V returned from his Kerala trip - to be with his dad who had an operation - another person from the colony where she lived said that she was not the kind one could trust with the house or the kids. And that her son was not in Singapore as she claimed... 

It left us in a dilemma - we didnt know whether to believe it and chuck her out or persist with her until we found somebody. We thought the risk in keeping her was greater  - and since she had been making a fuss about leaving since some people had sullied her good name, we let her go without much ado. But before she left, she offered to come as a partimer to do the 'top work'  (sweeping-swabbing, washing utensils and clothes) while I was at home - she was damn good in these chores that I regretted letting her go. I told her I will call her later.

But before that, we wanted to explore our options. The first was a woman from Quilon who had offered to come a month earlier if I gave her a big loan. But that option seemed dead when she told us yesterday that she wasnt interested in leaving the shores of Kollam, the Ashtamudi lake to be precise.  She had probably found some other means to pay off her debt.

So yesterday I stayed at home but today we have arranged for a person to keep the kids company until I return. She has offered to give us a more reliable help from July 1. We are exploring other sources word of mouth.

Random shots

1. At the Chennai Trade Centre for The Hindu Lifestyle exhibition
2. Last-minute covering and labelling of schoolbooks, the night before
school reopened.
3. The dove with its two young ones. They disappeared 3-4 days after hatching.

Chennai's own Kirk

Intution

The new maid seems superficially ok - polite, caring for the kids (though both havent taken much of a liking for her, and prefers Kala) and energetically trying to keep the house clean. I am just not very comfortable with her, though I cant really pinpoint the reason. An intution that something is just not right somewhere - it is not just because she badmouths her competitors (other maids in the vicinity) or that the watchman mentioned that she had pilfered a large sum of money from a previous employer (but then the watchman and the maid who told him about it have vested interests, wanting to place their candidate as nanny).
V, who trust maids implicitly and believes in their goodness until they let you down, thinks she is going to be a fine nanny. And the cook - who is supposed to be her relative - who comes to the neighbour's house has vouched for her integrity.
I hope I wont regret having hired her.

The surprise element

The trip to Kerala and back this time held some surprises for me. For one, V decided to join me in the onward journey since he wanted to see his mother recovering from the snake bite. Two, there was this small-time actress sitting next to me in the train (because she hadnt got a flight ticket, and had to sit with us lowly mortals) though I wasnt sure until I asked her the next day (She turned out to be Kanya, who had acted as Siddiq's wife in Pokkiriraja which I saw recently.) Three, the train wasnt at the station even at the scheduled time of departure and the confusion (that characterises Indian railway stations) was twice as ever.

And when we reached Changanachery, the kids were a welcome surprise too - both looked much chubbier and healthier than when they had left Chennai two months back. The monsoon, expected to make a grand entry on the 31st to welcome this rain-thirsty Vezhambal, played truant and didnt make its appearance until after we left the Kerala border.

And the day we returned to Chennai, there was a death (by suicide) of someone we knew from the church. It came as a major shock for most of us who knew him since he had seemed so pleasant and energetic. Apparently he was going through a depression phase and the immediate provocation was his wife asking him why he had bought too much fish from the market. That will have some Malloo wives here worried.

I am now telling V that he not take me too seriously if I find fault/nag/shout at him.

Holiday hangover

Playing cricket with my uncle (not in the picture) in the evening at the family house.

After a trip to maid Shanta's hut the day before we left. The water lilies were plucked from a pond on the way. For a month they had been inviting themselves to her house which is being rebuilt with a government grant. The lack of amenities in their temporary shelter bothered them. So did a blouse-less woman draped only in her mundu while stepping out of her bath in a local pond.

At the church.