I live in Karachi, Pakistan. Our society in this dust filled, metropolitan city has a unique disability when it comes to domesticity. The truth is that we just can't seem to accept the concept of domesticity, which involves cleaning the bathrooms, mopping the floors, dusting each and every showpiece and silverware and washing piles and piles of dirty clothes and dishes Every. Single. Day. Need I remind those who cringe with the thought that I have just accused housewives or even businesswomen at being lazy bums, what I mean is that it's not actually the women of the house who are doing 100% of the work. 95 % of the work is actually done by the maids that us women depend upon desperately.
Maid #1 = The Serial Killer
This maid will be termed F because she was an utter FAIL!!!!!!!! Not only was she incompetent but she also had a sadistic streak that has made us thank God that she left.
F was a neighbor of X and had recommended her after our bafflement over X's resignation faded and we demanded that she send over another maid. What a disaster F was.
It took her approximately three days to change her tune. My grandfather would take his daily tea at 10:45 a.m. and the first time my grandmother told her to make tea for him-because she was really tired and didn't have the strength to go down to the kitchen-F made perfect tea and sent it upstairs. My grandmother was glad that she was able to make good teas as she already had so many other household duties, especially taking care of grandfather's failing health she thought to give the tea-making duty to F. Still she first asked F that will she be able to do the tea-making and F gladly agreed by saying "No problem baji ( madam) I will take care of it. You don't worry." The next day, the tea was down right horrible. My grandmother asked her about it and she said simply "I have too much work to do already and don't have the time." Irritated, Grandmother told her that they had given her half the usual work and F retaliated by leaving Grandma's clothes swimming in detergent in a plastic tub in the back of the house. Not knowing this, she sweetly told us that she has done all the work and left by three, although she was to stay till four-thirty. It was Mother who noticed the clothes when she came back from work late evening.
Mother called our X and told her what a horrible woman she had sent to us and even X was surprised and said that when F came home, she told X gleefully what she had done and said "Now they will learn to not to talk to me like that. Let them do their own housework." Even worse, she made up stories about how awful Mother is to her and how we bad mouthed about X to her. Mum denied it and was outraged.
(We did not deserve such treatment as Mother paid these maids fair wages and nobody in the house ever treated them with contempt or thought them below our status.)
Maid # 2 = The Non-Terminator.
Now this maid was K because she was a bit Krazyyy. She was working at a house down our lane so it was convenient for her to come work for us half a day. My grandmother is quite vigilant about the comings and goings of maids on our street as she knows that X would take days off (because she would be mildly sick or a far relative would be sick or an aunt's, daughter's father-in-law's brother's daughter would be hospitalized and she HAS to be there. Something which is beyond my understanding as it is not X that is going to drive the car/ambulance that will take these people to the doctor/hospital. Where are the parents? Siblings? Even grandparents?). So that's how Grandmother discovered K. One fine day she was walking down the street and befriended her. Since that particular day, whenever K would pass by, she would greet my grandmother which is very courteous of her.
When X left us, grandmother approached K to cook and clean the kitchen only, at least that burden would be lifted off of Mother's and Grandmother's shoulders. K agreed wholeheartedly. We were glad and she started work the next day. What a mistake.
It took K a day to make us regret our decision to hire her. K's cooking abilities were mildly bearable, and the condition of the kitchen after she had cooked was Horrific! We wouldn't dare enter the kitchen without our home slippers on. Even then I would be terrified to enter, knowing that my slippers would squish the fallen scrapes of vegetables, crush the broken eggshells and have one or two stray cats attempting to get into the kitchen to eat all the food on the kitchen floor. The sink would be filthy. Dirty dishes lying around everywhere. The kitchen counters stained with scraped off gravy and what not. It was the most disgusting place I had ever seen. Even after she had cleaned it, there would be a certain stink in the kitchen which would attract cockroaches, HUGE ONES, and Mother would come home from work and would have to kill the cockroaches before she even went to her room to freshen up. Mother told K the next day and K would reply "Baji, I would NEVER do that, I clean and clean and clean after every dish is used. I swear to God I treat your house as my house and I would never leave it even remotely dirty, if I ever do, you can fire me on the spot" she went on and on about how cleanliness is godliness and Mother thought it as a one time mistake and let it go. The same day, K left the kitchen even worse, she didn't throw out the trash and we could see clear that a lot of the dirt and scraps of food was shoved under the stove and the storeroom was a party house for cockroaches. Yuck.
Mother told her again and again and again, even the food was getting worse, the gravy was 90% water and the rice would be stuck together and bland. Dad rarely came home to eat because of the sucky food. Not a good thing. K had to go.
Maid #3: The Man of the House.
The maids that our society depends upon are not the normal, hardworking kind of maids. Yes they are trying to make a living to support their families. Yes they come from miles and miles away from early in the morning till late evening risking the neglect their kids might feel, and yes, they don't have the women's rights as they live in a part of the city where feudalism is rampant. There are still those people who have made lives miserable for those who are actually PAYING them to work so that they can support their families, give a childhood to their kids and put them in schools and give them a bit of the independence they can get from the suffocating society they come from. For me, these maids are the thousands of needles prickling my feet everyday. So, I'm going to give personal evidence to the horrific scenarios and emotional stress some of these maids have given to me, my mother and poor grandmother.
( The reason for these lines of maids was that our maid of 20 years, X, had left us abruptly for a new and better job.)
Maid #1 = The Serial Killer
This maid will be termed F because she was an utter FAIL!!!!!!!! Not only was she incompetent but she also had a sadistic streak that has made us thank God that she left.
F was a neighbor of X and had recommended her after our bafflement over X's resignation faded and we demanded that she send over another maid. What a disaster F was.
It took her approximately three days to change her tune. My grandfather would take his daily tea at 10:45 a.m. and the first time my grandmother told her to make tea for him-because she was really tired and didn't have the strength to go down to the kitchen-F made perfect tea and sent it upstairs. My grandmother was glad that she was able to make good teas as she already had so many other household duties, especially taking care of grandfather's failing health she thought to give the tea-making duty to F. Still she first asked F that will she be able to do the tea-making and F gladly agreed by saying "No problem baji ( madam) I will take care of it. You don't worry." The next day, the tea was down right horrible. My grandmother asked her about it and she said simply "I have too much work to do already and don't have the time." Irritated, Grandmother told her that they had given her half the usual work and F retaliated by leaving Grandma's clothes swimming in detergent in a plastic tub in the back of the house. Not knowing this, she sweetly told us that she has done all the work and left by three, although she was to stay till four-thirty. It was Mother who noticed the clothes when she came back from work late evening.
Mother called our X and told her what a horrible woman she had sent to us and even X was surprised and said that when F came home, she told X gleefully what she had done and said "Now they will learn to not to talk to me like that. Let them do their own housework." Even worse, she made up stories about how awful Mother is to her and how we bad mouthed about X to her. Mum denied it and was outraged.
(We did not deserve such treatment as Mother paid these maids fair wages and nobody in the house ever treated them with contempt or thought them below our status.)
Maid # 2 = The Non-Terminator.
Now this maid was K because she was a bit Krazyyy. She was working at a house down our lane so it was convenient for her to come work for us half a day. My grandmother is quite vigilant about the comings and goings of maids on our street as she knows that X would take days off (because she would be mildly sick or a far relative would be sick or an aunt's, daughter's father-in-law's brother's daughter would be hospitalized and she HAS to be there. Something which is beyond my understanding as it is not X that is going to drive the car/ambulance that will take these people to the doctor/hospital. Where are the parents? Siblings? Even grandparents?). So that's how Grandmother discovered K. One fine day she was walking down the street and befriended her. Since that particular day, whenever K would pass by, she would greet my grandmother which is very courteous of her.
When X left us, grandmother approached K to cook and clean the kitchen only, at least that burden would be lifted off of Mother's and Grandmother's shoulders. K agreed wholeheartedly. We were glad and she started work the next day. What a mistake.
It took K a day to make us regret our decision to hire her. K's cooking abilities were mildly bearable, and the condition of the kitchen after she had cooked was Horrific! We wouldn't dare enter the kitchen without our home slippers on. Even then I would be terrified to enter, knowing that my slippers would squish the fallen scrapes of vegetables, crush the broken eggshells and have one or two stray cats attempting to get into the kitchen to eat all the food on the kitchen floor. The sink would be filthy. Dirty dishes lying around everywhere. The kitchen counters stained with scraped off gravy and what not. It was the most disgusting place I had ever seen. Even after she had cleaned it, there would be a certain stink in the kitchen which would attract cockroaches, HUGE ONES, and Mother would come home from work and would have to kill the cockroaches before she even went to her room to freshen up. Mother told K the next day and K would reply "Baji, I would NEVER do that, I clean and clean and clean after every dish is used. I swear to God I treat your house as my house and I would never leave it even remotely dirty, if I ever do, you can fire me on the spot" she went on and on about how cleanliness is godliness and Mother thought it as a one time mistake and let it go. The same day, K left the kitchen even worse, she didn't throw out the trash and we could see clear that a lot of the dirt and scraps of food was shoved under the stove and the storeroom was a party house for cockroaches. Yuck.
Mother told her again and again and again, even the food was getting worse, the gravy was 90% water and the rice would be stuck together and bland. Dad rarely came home to eat because of the sucky food. Not a good thing. K had to go.
Maid #3: The Man of the House.
Now this Maid is A, usually this letter is associated with excellence, not this time, this time A is for AAARRGHHH!. I pitied this particular woman initially though because she was the breadwinner in her house and her in-laws were big idiots. This time my dad was sooo pissed with the maid situation that he said he'll handle the maid that would come next. So came A and my dad told her to get her husband for her "interview" (he wanted to assess A's relationship and background). He found her husband to be a joke and the father-in-law as a typical patriarchal man. The pity card was played by A very well. We put her on the job.
As she started work, she was fine. None of us were surprised that things went downhill after a week though. We didn't realize how downhill it would actually go. She was a banshee, the day of the end of the month when we paid her half for a her half-assed work, her voice echoed in the whole house. Okay, Dad could deal with that, he told her to leave now and come back when she is calm. She did that because nobody messes with my dad when he uses his calm but rage-filled tone. She comes back with her husband who out of nowhere begins to swear and curse Dad. Not in the house but outside, on the lane, in front of neighbors. Great. Dad is again quiet until the husband has nothing to say, then he says that if A and her husband don't leave and if they ever try to come back, he will throw them both in jail. They hurry away, but then A comes back after a couple of weeks with her mother-in-law at 2 a.m.! She says her husband has sent her, she really wants money and will even work for it. Mom and Dad let them in and discussed about the way this whole situation was handled and again, rather than listening, she starts blaming my parents for putting her in this situation in the first place. My parents are astonished, they could not believe that this drama was happening in front of their eyes. They advised A to leave and I think they gave some money to compensate her until she gets a job somewhere else.
The whole year my household was in turmoil due to changes in maids, until finally X's employers shifted abroad. Mother called her up and told her to come work for a while, if she doesn't like it, she can leave. X hasn't left yet. Thank God. Everything's right with the world again.
I just read this - HAHA, i couldnt help but laugh at the various descriptions.
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought this was the funniest story in the world, but by the end of it, one can't help but pity the strange plight of middle/upper class pakistani women with their dependency on domestic servants - the worst form of self-imposed misery in my honest opinion.
Thank you for your comment Zainab :)
ReplyDeleteHere's the kicker: the day I published this post, X left us again, she got jaundice.