Of Maids and Their Ilk

Recently a good friend of mine wrote on the travails of maids. Her line of fear - not thought - was her maid would run away with her 'boyfriend'.

Mine is that our maid will drive us all mad and subsequently to the verge of some chronic disease.

What is it with them? Why can I not find someone who has an iota of a brain and knows not to wash colored clothes with white? Who knows that a white shoe goes with a white one and not with navy blue or brown! Who knows that one cannot broom up all the dust in the room when the fan is on. And one who knows it's OK to ask and eat rather than be caught eating without - THAT's the surest way out of the door.

Let me tell you about this morning. We have a fully automatic washing machine. You know - the kinds that will wash to rinse to spin and to part dry for you? THOSE kinds. Don't ask me what she did, but my maid actually managed to take out wet clothes - WET clothes from the said machine and put them out on the line to "dry". And of course, a few of them fell on the terrace - a usually clean, cemented terrace, ringed by potted plants. I have NO idea what she did up there - but when I went up, I saw a row of "clean" clothes smudged with - gasp - mud! SHe managed to get the terrace dirty, managed to get what were till sometime back clean clothes stained and she had calmly stepped down to the ground floor without cleaning either!

नहीईईईईईईईईईईईईई

Boy, you can't blame me for losing my cool the way I did. And did I lose it!

And this is just the tip of the iceberg in my woes against this particular maid.

Maid-line number, anyone?