So, when she came
back to her house in the big city after a long break the problem of finding a
daily-wage maid was becoming very acute. One day, while doing her marketing in
the supermarket area of the campus she spotted a girl moving around here and
there. The girl was short with a round plump smiling face and looked very
homely in a modest dress of salwar kurta, and more importantly, she was only
around 25 years of age—an age Namrata always preferred for her maids, instead
of the condescending middle-aged ones. Namrata, acting on impulses and some
intuition, called her close and asked her if she worked as a maid. Indeed, she
worked as a maid and was willing to find new jobs. Namrata found her very
polite and soft spoken. She explained the situation to her and asked if she was
willing to work on a daily wage on whatever days she wanted her to come to her
house. The young girl agreed and it was done.
As the young maid
began working in her well-kept, neat and clean and compact household Namrata
was very impressed with her honesty, and she was full of praise for her. She told
her husband that finally God has handed her a solution. The girl was not at all
greedy like all others and she never objected to the wage given by Namrata. She
punctually came at the time fixed and more than that she used to check if Namrata
wanted any change by coming early morning every day, just to confirm.
Namrata was the
happiest soul on earth till the first day of the next month arrived.
On that day the young
maid came around noontime and informed Namrata that she would not be able to do
the work as she had landed several new monthly jobs and there was just no free
time available for her. The sudden turn of events piqued Namrata to a great measure.
Several points came to her mind: that her immediate neighbor engaged the maid
even though they always lived there; that she’d already given her quite a few
things of the house that she thought would be useful for the young girl who lived
with her elder sister in a shanty nearby; and that the maid had been talking
much smarter in the last couple of days. Surmising the points, she now found
her ungrateful and cunning. There was a long debate between the two with no
solution coming up. Finally, Namrata saw her off asking her to come in the
afternoon.
The young maid
never came back. Namrata then began pouring her ire to her husband. The husband
took in the picture perfectly and told her the following:
The young girl was
actually looking for jobs, maybe desperately—on monthly basis only for sustenance.
For that she’d started moving around in the campus to get noticed by someone (of
course, the husband concedes, she may have had at least one job in the campus
or in the nearby buildings). She wore a very modest humble look just to impress
possible homemakers. She was very particular about not being greedy about money
as she expected those attributes of hers circulate around the campus through mouth-to-mouth
publicity. She came every morning to Namrata’s house to check (her husband
found her talking on her mobile in the passage, moving around) which was a
clear move to enhance her visibility like marketers do with their products—ranging
from commodities to movies and to even books. Her marketing strategy worked fine
as she succeeded in getting quite a few monthly engagements.
“You see, Namrata!
What she’s done is not at all wrong or illegal except for the fact that it’s thrown
your problem squarely back at you and for that the girl could be held
responsible in some measure.” Said her husband in an effort to console her. “You
can understand how tough our times are and how difficult it is to find jobs. Even
for these jobs in the unorganized sector there is brutal competition. And the
veterans in the job vehemently resist new entrants like for example in the case
of the maids you’ve recently heard that the old maids do not allow new people
get jobs here. Very personally speaking I must applaud the girl for her determination
and vision to get jobs. She is sharp and can be called one of the new-age
go-getters. We’ll never know what compulsions have brought her here in this
city leaving her family behind and why she could not carry on with her studies
if at all she was admitted into schools. But mind you, it’s not sure that she’ll
stick to the jobs she achieved for long; because she’ll definitely look for
better opportunities.”
Namrata sat in silence
for a long time. Then she asked, “But then how on earth are we going to solve
our problems?”
“Let’s hope we
settle down in one place soon instead of moving around all over the country!”
“And we compromise
with our work and the opportunities?”
“That’s the
problem! It applies to all the people in similar or worse positions.”
