[This blog was written in July, but posted today :) ]
I had no idea how critical my maid was in making my work-cum-home life smooth until she fell sick last week. Poor girl is down with Malaria and Typhoid and has to rest for 15-20 odd days. Now, I totally agree that she cannot work in this condition but the wretched officework-cum-home life (again a choice that we ourselves make) can crack up the toughest. I was the one who went down last week -- and still recovering.
While this is not the first time my maid has taken an off, but usually she gets me a replacement maid (temp). However, since she fell sick so suddenly there wasn't any time to arrange a temp before she could take the bed. With sweeping, mopping,washing clothes, cleaning toilets and cleaning dishes upon my head and a hectic work schedule on other, it was natural that I lost all my sensibilities to be nice to anyone around me -- that is inevitably the poor spouse. Yes, I am actually feeling sorry for him. I snapped, cracked and banged the doors or vessels (anything rather that came in my hands).
The cooking was down to basics, as maid helped in chopping vegetables and making chapati's. While I can live on maggi and quick-fix pasta, spouse cannot. He (or his tummy) yearns for daal-rice or roti-sabji. Well, it continued to yearn for about 6 days.
Anyways, Day 1 (without maid): I wake up to a messy kitchen sink and bathroom full of clothes. Bedsheets un-made and footwear all over the house. Yes, it was dreadful sight for a maid-obsessed person like me. My first task -- at 7 am -- was to clean the toilets and sweep the floors clean. I didn't mop as by then I had worked up a foul mood already. No tea and no lunch made for spouse and myself.
Day 2: I wake up to more messy bathroom full of clothes and stack of dirty dishes. My mother has always warned me to never ever leave dirty dishes in the kitchen sink if there was no maid to help in mornings since your day can get deeply depressing when you see the pile of dishes, that in the end you have to clean anyways. So, I dig in to clear the stack -- a task that not only fuels my frustration but I also start taking it out of the spouse and at work. WRONG, I know, but it happens.
Day 3: Still no maid and I was at my wits end-- even had a nightmare of a dirty house and insects crawling from my kitchen. I beg and bribe the gate security to send me any maid that he comes across. He manages to get one, who quickly tells me the list of things she wont do! Even before joining as a temp this new maid had listed out that she wont dry the utensils and place them in racks, she wont put the clean laundry on clothesline and the day kitchen load (dirty utensils) is heavy, she wont touch the dirty laundry. She refused to make chapati's and shook a quick no to chopping veggies too. All this when I was ready to pay extra for each work.
Whoever said money can buy you anything, must be really a man with .
P.S: Those 3 days were an eyeopener to me. Maids, specially the old ones get so dear to your household that you never realise what they stand for until they take off. The day my old maid returned is undoubtedly the happiest day of 2010 for me -- it was the day my house came back to normalcy and so did my temper!
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