Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Maid (substitute)

Just when I thought our lives were going to set into a pattern again, things had to go sour again. The maid left yesterday night for Kerala after her folks called to say that her 40-yr-old brother died, god knows how. She expressed a desire to go and we couldnt be mean enough not to let her go regardless of the train fare up and down. (The fact is that we just make two trips a year to Kerala, while the maids go every other month on one pretext or the other, and we have no option but to humor them since we need their services badly.)

The funeral is supposedly today, and she said she will be back by Friday. I think we can take her word on that since she hasnt taken any of her belongings with her, only her purse. She found a seat in the ladies compartment of Trivandrum Mail, standing in a queue and supervised by the railway police (which is a good thing. Earlier, male relatives or railway porters fetched seats for many of the women travelling in the unreserved ladies compartment; porters, of course, for a price.) Her return journey could be less tedious if my dad manages to procure a reserved berth in the train for her.

Nowadays, tickets for travelling in the unreserved compartments can be booked 3 days in advance. I had managed to sneak out from office at lunch time and buy a ticket in 2 minutes' time at the ladies/senior citizens/handicapped counter, which was surprisingly not closed, like in the peak-hour evenings. The evening queue lines are crazy too and one can never hope to board the train on time.

We have requested the services of Manohari, who had looked after the kids in January, and who had expressed a desire to work for us again if necessary. She had been pestering my partimer Kala to find her a job as a cook, and had even offered to make a biriyani for me any time I wanted. I will order a poori-potato masala first!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi, yeah, hope everything goes ok and she comes back..
wonder what caused her brothers passing away..?
takecare ust

the other romila said...

The maid jinx struck again! Ouch!!
I could do a research ont the probability of finding good domestic help, atleast it will be useful to loads of us.

Maggie May said...

Have really enjoyed reading about the maid & your descriptions of life in India! Hope you don't think I am eavesdropping!

Ladybird said...

UST: seems he was ill.
Maggie: No, I am privileged to have u reading my posts. And also the fact that you are interested in an alien culture.

Anonymous said...

First of all I want to say terrific blog! I had a quick question that
I'd like to ask if you don't mind. I was curious to know how you center yourself and clear your head prior to writing.
I've had a difficult time clearing my thoughts in getting my thoughts out there.
I do take pleasure in writing however it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually lost simply just
trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or tips?
Thank you!

On the penultimate day of reporting duty at the photography festival, the boss of the English writing dept, came and told me: When we both a...