One thing that I believe every girl/woman settled abroad loves to lament about to their mothers or any other female relatives in India is that they don't have a maid here to work for them! Infact, while we are completely jealous of our female counterparts in India who have people come over to do their dishes, cooking, sweeping, mopping, laundry, ironing and you name it, we feel a sense of self pity and superiority in telling them - "We have to do everything ourselves here!".
WE SAY, THEY SAY -
Indian Lady - Aaj maid nahin aayi. Ek ghanta lag gaya saare bartan dhone main! (The maid decided to take a day off and hence I had to do the dishes today. It was a painful 1 hour chore!)
NRI Lady - Guess what I just bought a new dishwasher ! I just keep loading it all day and while I sleep, it washes :-p ( now you know where the superiority factor comes from).
Indian Lady - Ek second hold karna, dhobi aaya hai. Kapde press ke liye dene hain! (Oh can you hold the line please, the dhobi is here to take the clothes for ironing!)
NRI Lady - (Won't say but will think) She is soo lucky..I have piles to do and will easily take me 4 hours! ( This is where the self-pity factor kicks in)
Indian Lady - Aaj maine maid se ghar ke har corner ki acche se safai karayi. Raat ko ghar main party hai aur cook ko bata rahi hun kya banana hai dinner main! ( We have a party at our place tonight. Got the maid to clean every nook and corner of the house and have to then instruct the cook about the menu for the dinner)
NRI Lady - ( Will again not speak but indulge in self pity) Ya right, she thinks instructing is a lot of work! Beat this if you can - I have a party day after tomorrow, am going to start cooking tomorrow, then spend 2 hours vaccuming and mopping and then get back to cooking! I'm already starting to have a heart attack thinking of all the work!
Indian Lady - Itne kapde ho gaye hain dhone waale! Maid bhi nahin mil rahi koi jo kapde dhoye. Upar se aaj kal thand itni hai ki kapde 2 days tak sookhte bhi nahin! ( There are no many clothes that I need to wash. Can't even find a maid who will do this for me. Moreover, the clothes seem to take ages to dry in this cold weather)
NRI Lady - ( Chin up, nose up, superiority complex up...) I just put the clothes in the machine almost every week for washing and the good thing is that they come out dry. So don't have to worry about them taking ages to dry. In any case, the weather hardly matters - what with the central heating at home :-p
Indian lady - Has a maid to take care of the kids, to mop, to clean, to do whatever she needs help with!
NRI Lady - Has all the latest gadgets - washing machine, dishwasher, vaccume cleaner, steam mop, food processor, coffee machine, electric kettles, electric ovens..the list is endless...BUT GADGETS DON'T TELL YOU THE NEIGHBOURHOOD GOSSIP!!
Well yes, once again - Life's like that-always greener on the other side :-)
8 months ago
