Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Halleluja!

After nearly a year with no regular maid, (after Murugamma left, and I fired her aunt-in-law) and a particularly tough 6 months with no maid at all, when I would
cook
and wash vessels
and sweep and scrub
and child-rear
and husband-rant
and drive 12 km to work one way,
and work,
and go out on calls
and then drive 12 kms again
to return to some more child rearing and thoughts of divorcing the husband (I'm not totally kidding here), finally the Gods have deigned to smile down on poor ol' me. I have finally got a live-in maid! Praise be to God, even if it may be premature.

I am not totally happy with her staying in chez moi. I would have much preferred her to be someone who'd push out after we came in, but.. beggars can't be choosers. No sireee, not at all.
So am stuck with her, for better, I hope.

The name is Sumitra, aka Sumi, aka Suma, and she came to us referred by the husband's friend's friend's friend's friend! So that we're no longer sure from whom she came to us and we don't really have a direct reference at all. Terrible thought, isn't it? The nth friend said that the family she was working with was moving to Kashmir and she didn't want to move, ...

But when we met her, she said she did go to Kashmir, but had to work in a beauty parlour, and apparently the lady she was working for was in some film circles and had clients coming in at all hours, at night too and she wasn't happy with that state of affairs.. Made me and the husband raise our eyebrows and wonder at this beauty parlour business. And then apparently, she came away from there without their consent and so she didn't have any of her clothes with her. Huh?

If her story 's true, she an unfortunate young girl. But if its just a pack of lies, we're the biggest suckers ever. And we're not able to decide which statement is correct. We're paying her 3500/- She said she'd do ANY work, but wanted every penny of the 3500/- cos she and her sister and mother were the earning members of her family which comprised 6. The rest of them sons, whose tuition fees were being met by the income. And yet, when she came to meet us at 8 in the night- a young girl of maybe 24 yrs, she was alone and not one of the said brothers accompanied her. I found that strange.

She was supposed to come last week, and on the appointed day, she called up in the morning to ask if she could come and I said ok. Then in the evening, she just didn't turn up! No call from her the whole night, or the next day, The next evening, again she called and asked if she could come then, and I enquired in my sternest manner, what she meant by not coming or informing us about anything yesterday.. She again gave us a sad story of her granny slipping down the stairs and breaking/dislocating her ankle and having to be taken to the hospital and resting at home with a bandaged foot, which was why she couldn't come or call the previous day....

Hmmm.. Sad? or Suckered?
Still not decided. But anyway, she's with us now. And I'm left wishing that the house were a bit more orderly when she came in. It was clean, but had clothes and newspapers thrown about helter-skelter. Now, she's going to think I'm a lousy housekeeper, which I'm not. I may crib about it, but I do take pride in keeping my house neat and clean. I'm not the husband, you know.

So now, she's installed. And we've found that we've misplaced all the keys of the bedrooms. So that when we went off to work today, she had the the entire house at her disposal. Not very conducive to a productive day in office. Sigh! I HAVE to search out those keys from wherever they're languishing. If only the Google Gods could help!

19 comments:

Swati said...

O-oh..not to scare you but the entire story of hers sounds fishy enough ..she is from which part of the world ?

I hope she turns out to be a relief ..all the best. But yeah..do find the keys and check out where her family stays.

aMus said...

i read the whole thing and te only thing i thought was how did sumitra shorten to suma..hmpff...

great... now your maid comments on your blog too...

:D

aMus said...

okay now that i got that out of my system...

i do hope she turns out to be ok...google do help JLT find those keys!!!

Mystic Margarita said...

Hey JLT, been lurking on your blog these last couple of weeks. This Sumitra gal does sound a bit fishy...maybe it's all true what she says - but sounds too filmy, if you ask me. Hope you find the house keys pronto! And good luck on the house hunting! :)

Usha said...

All the best with Sumi.
better find the keys - let her not get tempted.
3.5 K? Is that the kind of money you have to pay ? will she cook?
I really hope she turns out to be good and stays in spite of all the initial hiccups.

Usha said...

Oh btw, I googled for JLT 's keys and there are about 32,400 search results. I am sure your keys are somewhere among these. ROTFL....

Something to Say said...

O dear JLT - good luck with the maid. I hope and pray that her stories are true. But just change the locks anyways darling, if u cant find the keys pronto. And maybe u can ask some neighbour to keep popping by to keep an eye on her.
Me stuck in a similar dilemma - tho I'm a SAHM - I'm wondering if I shud have a full timer or a morn to even person now that baby is round the corner. Good luck!!

Praveen said...

Hi came here frm Usha's. Interesting blog, do u blog in rediff too?? BTW am frm Blore too. This sounds very fishy, I suggest u please take a snap of hers and do a police verification without her knowledge. Neighbours dont bother these days about ur business,I am not sure how ur neighbours are though. And plz do change the lock as someone above mentioned at the earliest.

Good luck.

Just Like That said...

Swati : Yeah, fond tho' I am of fish, I wish things were not this fishy... :-( She stays in Chamarajpet!!! Now that's all I need- stay in one corner, work in another corner, look for a house in yet another and check my new maid's antecedents in a fourth corner! Bah!

Suma: LOLOLOLOL But doesn't Sumi sound too much like an endearment? Suma is a name. You get what I mean..? Don't worry, you are unique, sweetie. :-D
Yeah, I do hope I find my keys- sooooooooon. The worst part is Hubby tried locking our bedroom with some other key and ended up jamming the lock! with the result that now we can't even close the door properly!! Did I ever mention the husband was such a help to me??

Mystic Margarita: That's a lovely blog id, welcome to my blog, tho' I guess we do know each other now from someplace else ;-) will come check out your blog soon. Very very filmy indeed, but I hope it has a happy ending for me.. :-)
House hunt is going on..

Usha: Yeah.:-(( 3.5 k is the kind of money I have to dish out for my phillumy maid. She said she could cook N Indian, S Indian.. the works.. but yesterday, the onions she cut for me were all in uneven pieces!! and there was too much salt in the dal I asked her to pressure cook!
:-D yeah, you sit and laugh at my plight! LOLOLOL I can just picture you laughing, even tho' I haven't seen you! :-D

STS: I fervently hope so too. Right now, we lock the wardrobe doors in both bedrooms...
Morn to eve is just perfect for me, but for you I guess a full time person would be nice with the baby on her way (its a girl, how NICE!:-D) If its someone nice, I guess its alright. Good luck to you too, sweetie, hope you find someone soon. And SAHM is no excuse for not needing a maid, I had one when I was a pregnant SAHM.

S. Praveen: Welcome to my blog. :-) Yeah, I do blog on rediff too. but I haven't seen you there, have I? some one else told me take a photo of hers with her address.. think I'll do that. But police verification.. ? do they do that for such mundane matters?

Savani said...

I hope she turns to be trust worthy and you get a break.. Taking a pictures adn her addrss seems like a good idea. Visit her neighborhood even!

Praveen said...

Yeh they do. In fact the city police off and on have been alerting people to do a complete police verification of any newly appointed domestic maid/driver. Please take this seriously. Ur maid's stories might/might not be true, but I think its better to be on the safer side. I am not trying to scare u :)

I remmeber reading ur blog sometime ago on rediff, I dont blog.

How do we know said...

All the Best with ur Suma baby. As u said very rightly, beggars cannot be choosers.

WhatsInAName said...

Well, heres wishing you good luck!!! Look at that! We need good lucks even for maid-ing!

Sunita said...

JLT, there are agencies that supply maids(atleast in Pune), they are priced higher than the normal maids but atleast we can hope they wouldnt disappear or somebody is responsible.
I used a normal 9-6 maid for sometimes with a lot of cock-n-bull stories but since my mom was there, I wasnt very worried. My friend who leaves her kid and home back to the maid, hired one from the agency and its working well for her. Not that she is mighty pleased, but the basics are done.Her kid is taken care of and the house is clean when she is back.

Poppins said...

OOh boy. Well I had to ROFL for this one..
but I do take pride in keeping my house neat and clean. I'm not the husband, you know.

*chortle*

Sumana said...

Enjoyed this post. Beggars cannot be chosers is so true. Abba, it is so tough to get a maid here who can be in regularly and not crib about the work and the money. Pay them whatever they ask for and still you will not get loyalty back.

Mama - Mia said...

:)

six months wo maid?? you awesome!! i hyperventilalte when mine turns up 10mins late!! aaarrgghh!!

i hope sumi turns out to be a welcome addition! and 3.5k is decent money for a live in maid! seriously!

hope your life is l'il more peacful now!! :)

hugs

Just Like That said...

Dotmom: I should, I will.. sometime soon.

s.praveen: hmmm...I haven't done anything on police lines yet.even tho' I'm educated and not scared of the police Sigh!.
I know you mean to help- thank you :-)

How do we know, WIAN: Thank you :-)

Sunita: A friend has tried a similar service in B'lore. But apparently, three maids came and went in quick succession. When one leaves, they don't send the same one back, they send a replacement. I figured its too much getting used to - for all of us, esp Sonny boy.
Thanks for the help, tho' :-)

Poppins: You totally agree, tho', don't you? :-D

Sumana: Welcome to my blog. Thanks for the nice words. :-)

MamaMia: I hyper ventilate all the time now. Seriously, I seem to be perpetually tripping over her things now (As if I weren't irritated enough over mubby's, BIL's and Sonny Boy's things) Bah! And her work is not so great as to make all these irritations minor. I too knew 35oo was ok, for a good one. But for a not so good one..??? Pinches. Hard. More with every day.
But yeah, she does clean vessels, in that way, life is more peaceful. Hugs to Cubby! :-D

Daisy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.