Lakshmi and Anu
Once again I was alone, as my daughter had left home to does her PG. Would have opted for a part time help but for Zephyr who loved human company. There was this very close friend of mine, who had a good part time maid who worked part time in 8 houses and it was taking a toll on her health. My friend suggested that I keep her on my 6am to 6pm assignment with permission to be away for a couple of hours to do my friend’s household work too. Are houses were about 3 kilometers apart so she suggested give her cycle to commute between our houses. I agreed to that because I knew she was good at her work she had been at my friends place for a year. What I did not know was that she was a good gossip too. She was used to working in 8 houses and narrating at each place what happened at the other places. Now she had only two houses to work in and not enough tales to carry so she started spicing it up on her own! She created a lot of problems between me and my friend before we realized what she was up to. One day we confronted her in both our presence and the cat was out of the bag .There after she realized this was not going to work, so she at least reduced the gossip it was in any case too much to expect of to stop gossiping.
Lakshmi’s husband was a carpenter who worked and earned well but drank away to the last rupee. Lakshmi slogged to keep the family going with the help of her son who was an apprentice to a carpenter. There was no knowing when Lakshmi would not turn up for work and for how long, it all depended on how badly her husband in his drunken state beat her up. She would turn after a couple of days looking so pathetic that you would not have the heart to haul her up. What do you tell a women who turned with a swollen face or an injured hand or a broken tooth? At one point I got so tiered of her erratic work schedules that I asked her to leave but she talked me into keeping her daughter Anu. I agreed not knowing what I was letting myself in for. The girl was a cheerful kid , just 15 ½ years .She had only two interests in life drawing Kolams( rangoli ) and watching the TV.I tried to get interested in continuing her studies she tried to please me for a week then told me I have no interest in learning , I only like to draw kolams . The book I had given to write English alphabets in was filled cover to cover in Kolam designs after a month or so I gave up trying to teach her instead gave her color pencils and an empty note book to do kolam designs. I did all this despite the fact that she was lousy at work in the hope that she would learn to work in a month or two. But she was totally uninterested in work it was like her mother had left her at her grandmother’s place for a holiday. She enjoyed her stay drawing kolams and watching every Tamil TV serial in every channel throughout the day. It was only when she heard the car drive in when I returned from office that she would rush to clean the house, the dishes would be lying in the sink since morning when she helped me in the kitchen with the cooking. I tried Sam, dam, vend with her with no results. I got her small little gift like a nail polish or a hair clip or fancy earring etc as an incentive if she did all the jobs assigned to her, I tried scolding her (I do not think I ever scolded anyone as much as I scolded her), I tried sitting down on Sundays and explaining to her why she should work well and be a support to her mother and help her to put the two younger kids back into school. She would agree with me but her work would be undone or some shabby work done in between serial watching. The only thing that worked with her was threatening to send her away. Her endearing quality was her love for me, however much I scolded her she would never get angry she was always cheerful, I think that was the reason I kept her for full 4 months though right from the job of waking her up, making her have a bath, sweep and mop the house for each task I had to really strain myself. The last straw was when I found a Kolam design on the wall! I gave up training her to be a good maid and a source of help to her mother. So she was off and her mom Lakshmi back at work promising to come regularly or at least inform if she was not coming.
Thereafter, the same routine continued, Lakshmi would come to work one day disappear another day pop up again after a couple of days crying that she was beaten up black and blue. The last time she came back she assured me then onward I would not have a problem she was going to stay in my house as she had left her husband and kids in their home in the village and had come back alone.
She had to vacate rented accommodation in Chennai almost every third month either because of the inability to pay rent or more often than not because of drunken brawls at home which the neighbors complained about. She said she had learnt her lesson and she was staying in my house and working at my place and wanted help to get her daughter a job which I did in a friend’s place where she had to just look after a baby and not do household work. She said I need to give her, her salary only when she goes to the village for diwali which was 3 months away so that she can put her two youngest kids in school. Everything was fine for 3 months as far as work was concerned she and her daughter Anu working in my friends place saved up quite a tidy sum for their first trip to village after the new arrangement. She missed her kids a lot and wanted to carry gifts for them since I wanted her to put the kids in school and not waste away their life’s I did not want her to spend her savings so I got new clothes not only for Lakshmi but for Anu and the two younger kids paid her salary which and was very sure she would return two days after diwali but two months passed by with no information. much later I came to know from my friend whose place she used to work in whom she had a pending loan with them and that there was a massive fight between Lakshmi and her husband and Lakshmi doused herself and the kids with kerosene and tried set all of them on fire and that they survived but were under treatment for burns. I decided not to keep her even if she returned,scared that she may make more such attempts. She has not returned to this day.
Once again I was alone, as my daughter had left home to does her PG. Would have opted for a part time help but for Zephyr who loved human company. There was this very close friend of mine, who had a good part time maid who worked part time in 8 houses and it was taking a toll on her health. My friend suggested that I keep her on my 6am to 6pm assignment with permission to be away for a couple of hours to do my friend’s household work too. Are houses were about 3 kilometers apart so she suggested give her cycle to commute between our houses. I agreed to that because I knew she was good at her work she had been at my friends place for a year. What I did not know was that she was a good gossip too. She was used to working in 8 houses and narrating at each place what happened at the other places. Now she had only two houses to work in and not enough tales to carry so she started spicing it up on her own! She created a lot of problems between me and my friend before we realized what she was up to. One day we confronted her in both our presence and the cat was out of the bag .There after she realized this was not going to work, so she at least reduced the gossip it was in any case too much to expect of to stop gossiping.
Lakshmi’s husband was a carpenter who worked and earned well but drank away to the last rupee. Lakshmi slogged to keep the family going with the help of her son who was an apprentice to a carpenter. There was no knowing when Lakshmi would not turn up for work and for how long, it all depended on how badly her husband in his drunken state beat her up. She would turn after a couple of days looking so pathetic that you would not have the heart to haul her up. What do you tell a women who turned with a swollen face or an injured hand or a broken tooth? At one point I got so tiered of her erratic work schedules that I asked her to leave but she talked me into keeping her daughter Anu. I agreed not knowing what I was letting myself in for. The girl was a cheerful kid , just 15 ½ years .She had only two interests in life drawing Kolams( rangoli ) and watching the TV.I tried to get interested in continuing her studies she tried to please me for a week then told me I have no interest in learning , I only like to draw kolams . The book I had given to write English alphabets in was filled cover to cover in Kolam designs after a month or so I gave up trying to teach her instead gave her color pencils and an empty note book to do kolam designs. I did all this despite the fact that she was lousy at work in the hope that she would learn to work in a month or two. But she was totally uninterested in work it was like her mother had left her at her grandmother’s place for a holiday. She enjoyed her stay drawing kolams and watching every Tamil TV serial in every channel throughout the day. It was only when she heard the car drive in when I returned from office that she would rush to clean the house, the dishes would be lying in the sink since morning when she helped me in the kitchen with the cooking. I tried Sam, dam, vend with her with no results. I got her small little gift like a nail polish or a hair clip or fancy earring etc as an incentive if she did all the jobs assigned to her, I tried scolding her (I do not think I ever scolded anyone as much as I scolded her), I tried sitting down on Sundays and explaining to her why she should work well and be a support to her mother and help her to put the two younger kids back into school. She would agree with me but her work would be undone or some shabby work done in between serial watching. The only thing that worked with her was threatening to send her away. Her endearing quality was her love for me, however much I scolded her she would never get angry she was always cheerful, I think that was the reason I kept her for full 4 months though right from the job of waking her up, making her have a bath, sweep and mop the house for each task I had to really strain myself. The last straw was when I found a Kolam design on the wall! I gave up training her to be a good maid and a source of help to her mother. So she was off and her mom Lakshmi back at work promising to come regularly or at least inform if she was not coming.
Thereafter, the same routine continued, Lakshmi would come to work one day disappear another day pop up again after a couple of days crying that she was beaten up black and blue. The last time she came back she assured me then onward I would not have a problem she was going to stay in my house as she had left her husband and kids in their home in the village and had come back alone.
She had to vacate rented accommodation in Chennai almost every third month either because of the inability to pay rent or more often than not because of drunken brawls at home which the neighbors complained about. She said she had learnt her lesson and she was staying in my house and working at my place and wanted help to get her daughter a job which I did in a friend’s place where she had to just look after a baby and not do household work. She said I need to give her, her salary only when she goes to the village for diwali which was 3 months away so that she can put her two youngest kids in school. Everything was fine for 3 months as far as work was concerned she and her daughter Anu working in my friends place saved up quite a tidy sum for their first trip to village after the new arrangement. She missed her kids a lot and wanted to carry gifts for them since I wanted her to put the kids in school and not waste away their life’s I did not want her to spend her savings so I got new clothes not only for Lakshmi but for Anu and the two younger kids paid her salary which and was very sure she would return two days after diwali but two months passed by with no information. much later I came to know from my friend whose place she used to work in whom she had a pending loan with them and that there was a massive fight between Lakshmi and her husband and Lakshmi doused herself and the kids with kerosene and tried set all of them on fire and that they survived but were under treatment for burns. I decided not to keep her even if she returned,scared that she may make more such attempts. She has not returned to this day.
No comments:
Post a Comment