on maids

                                                      My friends in US seem to miss only two people in their life for living abroad and both of them start with the letter M -one is Mom and the other is  maid.While the Indian women brood over the luxuries enjoyed by those in the west,they on the other shore roll up their sleeve for a fight saying that I 'm unpaid driver unpaid maid servant unpaid this unpaid that while you people just command your maid and have your own time.Most of the statuses would be this "Had a tiring week end ,had to mop, had to wash the dishes , had to do the laundry ". I am one of the housewives enjoying the luxury of having a maid at my command(?)but i wonder if I am the employer many times.
                                                        While I walk here and there expecting the arrival of my maid my face finally blossoms like the lotus that responds to the feather touch of the sun when she turns up.Once shown the sophistication of having maids we are unable to keep them at bay.I immediately vanish from the door and appear near sink trying to put the vessels one into another to make it appear as though I had not cooked for days.Clothes to be dried are dragged out from the drier and the bucket appears in the foot of the staircase to be  spread under sun.Forgetting the purpose of keeping maids I rearrange things and put them in order, for her to sweep and mop easily.what all difficulties we have  to face each day....

• We will not have any guts to command her to grind the masala in the ammi because she herself would have come to work  after having  done that in her mixer grinder.
• Usually these maids will be short or atleast become short when we ask them to dust high windows or remove cobwebs.They will not be able to lift anything heavy.
• We should appreciate her  work now and then for the fear of loosing her service and patchwork should  be done after she leaves.
• Over appreciation leads her to over enthusiasm and she may start arranging things by herself and save energy by switching off all the possible switches and there is  always a risk of being scolded by our kid in search of his belt or tie on monday morning and our computer will show an improper shutdown while we lovingly open our PC to watch the movie we  thought we had downloaded.
•  We  never mind the laundry soap lathering in the sink.After all her service is more worth it.
• We dare not speak anything personal when the maid is around because our secrets will  not be  secrets anymore.
• We should be their ATM and give them money anytime when asked and if we hesitate our post as an employer would be gone and that prestigious post goes to our neighbour who invades our house now and then for the want of a maid.
• We walk around the place now and then to ensure that the floor is mopped properly.
• She will never forget to give us  tips on how to cook with limited vessels and when to change the broom and about the advantages of a fully automatic washing machine over a semi automatic .
• And one thing that will be hard to digest is that she will increase the salary by herself for every three months and grant  leave for herself .

                                          Friends I can hear my maid coming and I'm off to  my duty.Get! set !go!... And one minute -now you say- Am I not the employer employed by my employee?!Actually she owes me some money from her salary every month.Grhhhh....