SHOBHA
She was god send. Till my daughter a year old, the two sets of grandparents took turns to take care of her while I went to work. My mother in law and father in law came and stayed with us in Delhi and when they left my mom came and spent time with us. I will always remain so grateful to them .It would have caused them immense inconvenience to close down their establishments and help me cope with the baby and commitments at the work place. I had no idea how I would get back to work. I was able to be home till my daughter was three months old, by then I had exhausted all my leave. I did not have the heart to leave her in a crèche at least till she was a year old. Luckily the grandparents bailed me out.
Along with her first birthday came the transfer to Bombay, now Mumbai. Luckily unlike at Delhi, in Bombay the firm I worked with had a campus which meant that the office and the residence were in the same complex. That in itself was a big relief; however, I still needed a maid. My first experience with a live in maid. One of the security guards on the campus had a fifteen year old daughter who I employed.
Just fifteen years old and yet so professional. In all these years there have been only one or two instances of such professionalism. She had only one weakness – clothes. She loved pretty dresses and asked me not to reveal to her dad, the salary raise, I offered, once I discovered how good she was at her work. She would put away a small amount every month in a pearl pet jar in the kitchen. I offered to help her start a bank account but no; she loved to have it in the jar so that she could see it grow every month. Any tips from relatives who visited would all go right into the jar. So would all the cash received on festivals or birthdays.
Once the amount in the jar reached a tidy sum, there was no way I could avoid a trip to either Dadar or Bandra. I was new to Bombay and living on the campus I did not have to travel much .I dreaded the travel I had to undertake once in 3 to 4 months.Shobha would drag me to the Railway station .The crowds there was what I was scared of. I dreaded the fact that I would have to board the train in a fraction of a second that was left for the train to take off after what seemed like the whole of humanity poured out at the station. Shobha would carry my daughter in one hand and position me in front of her and push me into the door way of the train at the appropriate moment. Disembarking did not demand much effort, the crowd pushed you out but of course you had to ensure you were not pushed out at the wrong station! Once at Dadar or Bandra I would take charge of my daughter leaving Shobha free to flit from dresses to artificial jewelry to hair bands, back to dresses. Once she had her fill we would head back home with a repeat performance of boarding and disembarking at the stations and flowing out of the station along with the rest of humanity. Humanity seemed to flow towards VT in the forenoon and towards Malad in the evenings. I used to wonder what would happen if one were headed in the reverse direction. There would be no way one could thread ones way in the opposite direction, through that constant flow.
Though Shobha handled the entire household work including cooking, cleaning, baby sitting, you would never find her with a hair out of place. She was neat, clean, always well dressed and calm and collected. She was just as particular with my daughter’s appearance. When she brought my daughter down in the evenings to play she would shoe socks on her handkerchief pinned on her dress, really prim and proper accompanied by Shobha also equally prim and proper.
She kept the house too in the same manner all the toys and story books strewn around by my daughter would be in their allotted places before she open the door to anyone.
When I moved out of Bombay though she could have found a job anytime in Bombay she came with me to Bangalore for a couple of months so that I could get a maid at Bangalore train her and then part with Shobha. Once I found a substitute Shobha was dropped back at Bombay.
Unfortunately for me the one I got in her place Anita only lasted a month, I gave up getting her deloused. There were so many in her hair and she had very thick & long hair, that it was a losing battle so we parted ways in a month.
She was god send. Till my daughter a year old, the two sets of grandparents took turns to take care of her while I went to work. My mother in law and father in law came and stayed with us in Delhi and when they left my mom came and spent time with us. I will always remain so grateful to them .It would have caused them immense inconvenience to close down their establishments and help me cope with the baby and commitments at the work place. I had no idea how I would get back to work. I was able to be home till my daughter was three months old, by then I had exhausted all my leave. I did not have the heart to leave her in a crèche at least till she was a year old. Luckily the grandparents bailed me out.
Along with her first birthday came the transfer to Bombay, now Mumbai. Luckily unlike at Delhi, in Bombay the firm I worked with had a campus which meant that the office and the residence were in the same complex. That in itself was a big relief; however, I still needed a maid. My first experience with a live in maid. One of the security guards on the campus had a fifteen year old daughter who I employed.
Just fifteen years old and yet so professional. In all these years there have been only one or two instances of such professionalism. She had only one weakness – clothes. She loved pretty dresses and asked me not to reveal to her dad, the salary raise, I offered, once I discovered how good she was at her work. She would put away a small amount every month in a pearl pet jar in the kitchen. I offered to help her start a bank account but no; she loved to have it in the jar so that she could see it grow every month. Any tips from relatives who visited would all go right into the jar. So would all the cash received on festivals or birthdays.
Once the amount in the jar reached a tidy sum, there was no way I could avoid a trip to either Dadar or Bandra. I was new to Bombay and living on the campus I did not have to travel much .I dreaded the travel I had to undertake once in 3 to 4 months.Shobha would drag me to the Railway station .The crowds there was what I was scared of. I dreaded the fact that I would have to board the train in a fraction of a second that was left for the train to take off after what seemed like the whole of humanity poured out at the station. Shobha would carry my daughter in one hand and position me in front of her and push me into the door way of the train at the appropriate moment. Disembarking did not demand much effort, the crowd pushed you out but of course you had to ensure you were not pushed out at the wrong station! Once at Dadar or Bandra I would take charge of my daughter leaving Shobha free to flit from dresses to artificial jewelry to hair bands, back to dresses. Once she had her fill we would head back home with a repeat performance of boarding and disembarking at the stations and flowing out of the station along with the rest of humanity. Humanity seemed to flow towards VT in the forenoon and towards Malad in the evenings. I used to wonder what would happen if one were headed in the reverse direction. There would be no way one could thread ones way in the opposite direction, through that constant flow.
Though Shobha handled the entire household work including cooking, cleaning, baby sitting, you would never find her with a hair out of place. She was neat, clean, always well dressed and calm and collected. She was just as particular with my daughter’s appearance. When she brought my daughter down in the evenings to play she would shoe socks on her handkerchief pinned on her dress, really prim and proper accompanied by Shobha also equally prim and proper.
She kept the house too in the same manner all the toys and story books strewn around by my daughter would be in their allotted places before she open the door to anyone.
When I moved out of Bombay though she could have found a job anytime in Bombay she came with me to Bangalore for a couple of months so that I could get a maid at Bangalore train her and then part with Shobha. Once I found a substitute Shobha was dropped back at Bombay.
Unfortunately for me the one I got in her place Anita only lasted a month, I gave up getting her deloused. There were so many in her hair and she had very thick & long hair, that it was a losing battle so we parted ways in a month.
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