It’s been over a week since I created my own blog and posted it onto the WorldWideWeb. I have already received 2 comments (positive), but now I have that disease faced mostly by prolific writers called the writer’s block. It’s funny actually as I haven’t yet decided what my blog will comprise of. So I decided to do some research on what most experienced bloggers write on and I found that most, 95 percent, of them had written a big post on the recently concluded “3 Idiots” debacle. Well, I am not going to post anything on this topic as I have not watched the movie and am content with the book itself as I believe spending 300 rupees a movie is absolutely idiotic. So since I rejected the idea of going for a movie, my weekend was spent mostly lazing around and watching movies on my lappy. The only extra thing my roomie Felix and I did was to haggle with a maid(cook) whom we had earlier finalised at a princely monthly salary of 1700 rupees a month for cooking our meals once a day, but who at the appointed first day of the job decided to give herself a 18 percent hike and demanded an higher amount.
It was like SALT to our wounds; we were hurt to the core. How can an illiterate person who works in the service industry demand an 18 percent hike when we after four years of slogging in a college spending lacs on our education (while listening to the classic pink Floyd rendition – “We don’t need no education”) and working in the same service sector (but different industry) for 3 years do not get any hike? Well, we were not going to bow down now. We haggled with her and brought her down to her original demand. Ok all set, she agreed to come at 5:30pm to cook our dinner. We spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing. In the evening we were eagerly waiting for our maid to come and we kept on waiting till 8:00pm when Felix got fed up and lit up the gas stove to cook lady’s finger , its ladyfinger by the way. So our maid had ditched us and had rejected our offer.
Next day we decided to cook Chicken Curry and when we went to buy chicken I got greedy and bought some Prawns too. For Bengalis like me Chicken and Prawns Curry are like Soul Curry. We do not need any ayurvedic treatments at spas or full body massages or yoga centres, we just need chicken curry. By the way we are great fans of the self help book series “Chicken Soup for the soul”. Any way without digressing much from the topic we brought in the material and cooked a marvellous lunch spread consisting of fried prawns, chicken curry, rice and salad. The whole operation took us only an hour. I overate and skipped dinner. While eating the wonderful meal Felix commented and I quote “Who needs a maid, when we are the best chefs”.
That’s when I realised that I had underestimated the maid’s importance in her industry. She had the confidence to demand a hike on the first day of her job because her job did “make a difference” to many people and families who consider the maid indispensable and whose life would become chaotic if she is absent for even one day. On the contrary we in the IT industry have become a commodity which is in such excessive supply that we are taken for granted. To illustrate it further, we are like Coriander. While cooking Chicken we bought some coriander and we were given a big bunch of the herb at a cost of rupees two only and we used only 4 – 5 twigs of it. Rest is kept on the kitchen table and will definitely rot by the time we decide to cook something again. The maid on the other hand is like the ginger-garlic-onion-tomato paste without which the chicken curry will not be chicken curry.
It was not exactly a glorious thought when I realised that the only service we are providing is through paying income tax and which now will ALSO be used to fund free travel for the netas and their “next of kin” which in India means the extended family of the neta.
I cringed as I had the feeling of “SALT OVER MY WOUNDS” all over again.
I now pledge to draw inspiration from the maid and do something meaningful in my life before I turn thirty.
I cringed as I had the feeling of “SALT OVER MY WOUNDS” all over again.
I now pledge to draw inspiration from the maid and do something meaningful in my life before I turn thirty.
GC.
