LifePedia | By Anand Sharma
The pandemic has struck and our lives have undergone a 360 degree transformation. Relationships have been recalibrated to withstand unfamiliar notions like ‘togetherness’ (spousal and/or familial). Mental hygiene is looking as hygienic as the local shauchaalay (public toilet) and the much-celebrated and formerly envied western concept of ‘Work from Home’ is now being experienced as the new ‘Curse at Home’ phenomenon.
News of friends and family receiving 20-50% pay cuts are sounding as routine as the common flu inspite of working from home whilst also working at home.
However, there is one species of ‘Professionals’, who inspite of the imported Virus are not only “Not Working” from home but are also getting their full quota of pay (Tax-free and Stay home money). You guessed it right- our beloved “Domestic Help”.
That one indispensable asset every Urban housewife and singleton, swear by.
CEO’s might fall, start-ups may fail but a maid will forever sail. In our current milieu we can live without a spouse or a steady partner but definitely not without our domestic help (aka didi/bai/maushi).
Post Lockdown, social media’s latest entrants are flooding the sites with their ever-changing DPs and uploading pictures, theirs- their families, their food, their stationary cycles and even their running fans. Whether it is due to their friend Mukesh Ambani’s cheap 4G rates or sheer ennui or simply out of keeping up with the Jonesses (us), the domestic helps are really making the most of their free-time.
My neighbour Shreya (33), a housewife, burns with rage every time she sees her 22-year-old maid’s obnoxiously pouty-framed selfies on Watsapp while she is single-handedly washing non-stop utensils that pile up in the sink. Shreya’s angst is justified since household chores have shot up with seemingly no end to kids and husband’s appetite. Says she, “they have been eating like they never had one full meal to eat pre-lockdown and are therefore compensating for it not realising that even a Maggie for 2 means having to wash 3-4 more utensils (without Help)”.
Shreya’s patience snaps further when her husband with a dash of spirituality rubs it in by suggesting, “Shreya this too shall pass”, without the slightest realisation that during normal days, the kids are in school and the husband at work and therefore it is lesser work than present.
While housewives are obviously feeling the pinch, the single men are in just as bad a state. Pampered by their ever-loving mothers they never stepped in the kitchen, hoping that the mother’s cooking would be replaced by a devoted wife’s and for the interim period of living independently there was always the ‘domestic help-on-rent’.
Manish Kumar, 30, Single, is actually behaving like fish-out-of-water. “Not only do I have to do office work all day and wash utensils thrice a day, clean the house every single day but I also have to put up with my maid actually calling in frequently to ask me about new worthwhile releases on OTT platforms while I haven’t got time to binge-watch myself.”
Peeya (23), a budding actress living alone in Mumbai and blessed with no culinary skills was solely dependent on her maid for food. The lockdown situation would have been catastrophic for her size-zero figure, but for the video-chats with her domestic help. While Peeya has to finally cook herself, but she is video-assisted by her maid, says Peeya, “it is actually sulekha mausi who suggested this and now she guides me through the steps, quickly, because she has many other clients like me.”
Sulekha Mausi has done to Peeya (in 21 days) what her own mother could not in 23 years, teach cooking. She now feels a different bond with her maid and can’t wait for the lockdown to get over.
While on the other hand people like Manish and Shreya are already contemplating forcing a pay cut down their maids` throats. But will it be prudent in the long run or more importantly ‘humane’?
Secondly, whether you like their ways, their perpetual AWOLing their rush to finish your house and head to the next or their lack of punctuality, the fact is we have all understood the importance of our domestic help and how relevant they are in keeping our sanity and our matrimonial ties alive.
After all, the lockdown will eventually end and the only thing to sooth your nerves will be a balm called Calm Bai (aka didi/bai/maushi).
Anand Sharma is a media professional, associated with leading names in the Indian TV industry for almost 18 years. He has worked with broadcasters like Star TV, Channel V & MTV India and for production houses like Miditech and Colosceum, to name a few. He specializes in Content creation in his parallel roles of Director, Creative Head and Writer (for TV production houses). His range of creative expression shifts seamlessly between tongue-in-cheek humour, emotionally-charged writings and stark satire. Some of his articles have been published on Bonobology.com, The Indian Express, connectedtoIndia.com and Little India.com. He has also written an audio-book for Storytel Originals, titled – “Tinderella in Jyotishland”.