If you want to find out how your mom or aunt or sister in India is doing, just ask if their maid is good. Having a maid that is consistently on time, does her job reasonably well and does not take days off without prior notice is so critical to peace of mind and happiness that I feel it is next only to finding the right life partner!
My mom was in the market for a new maid.
Here's maid#1 giving us her pitch:
I take a thousand rupees per chore per month- a thousand for dishes, thousand for laundry, thousand for cleaning the bathrooms and another thousand for mopping the floors. Any added chore is extra. This flat rate applies regardless of the number of rooms or the number of people inhabiting the house. I take two paid leaves in a month. I might need to travel unexpectedly to my village in which case I might be gone for three or four days at a time.
Here's the pitch from maid#2:
(speaking very softly) I only take five hundred rupees per chore per month. For your dishes, bathrooms and floors (pausing briefly to calculate the total for the three chores in her head...), give me three thousand rupees.
We hired maid#1 as she concluded that she can work with us for two thousand rupees a month. But she was missing in action for the next three days, with absolutely no prior communication. We had no other choice but to hire maid#2, despite her demonstrably sub par math skills.
I watched my mom follow this maid into every room and showing her the spots she missed on the floors and the window sills she completely ignored to dust. Their relationship is still in its infancy. It might take a long time before reaching the comfort level she shared with her old maid for more than a decade, Narsamma.
My mom was in the market for a new maid.
Here's maid#1 giving us her pitch:
I take a thousand rupees per chore per month- a thousand for dishes, thousand for laundry, thousand for cleaning the bathrooms and another thousand for mopping the floors. Any added chore is extra. This flat rate applies regardless of the number of rooms or the number of people inhabiting the house. I take two paid leaves in a month. I might need to travel unexpectedly to my village in which case I might be gone for three or four days at a time.
Here's the pitch from maid#2:
(speaking very softly) I only take five hundred rupees per chore per month. For your dishes, bathrooms and floors (pausing briefly to calculate the total for the three chores in her head...), give me three thousand rupees.
We hired maid#1 as she concluded that she can work with us for two thousand rupees a month. But she was missing in action for the next three days, with absolutely no prior communication. We had no other choice but to hire maid#2, despite her demonstrably sub par math skills.
I watched my mom follow this maid into every room and showing her the spots she missed on the floors and the window sills she completely ignored to dust. Their relationship is still in its infancy. It might take a long time before reaching the comfort level she shared with her old maid for more than a decade, Narsamma.
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| Narsamma standing proudly in front of the house she served for over a decade. |
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