Tuesday, June 12, 2007

The 30 minute crisis

While the whole country is rife with speculation as to who will succeed Kalam as the next president, the Chatterjee household is biting nails trying to guess who will succeed PM as the next maid servant. PM quit yesterday and we are at a loss today.

It all started because of those 30 minutes. For reasons best known to her, PM always turned up at 4 in the afternoon even though my mother had made it very clear to her that she should turn up 30 minutes later. In a world where we always turn up late for appointments, we were taken aback by her overwhelming sense of punctuality. The only way the mother sought to counter this, was by switching off the front door bell till 4:30pm and this, my mother did with limited success. Trouble started during weekends when my father who is at home and completely unaware of such rules, admitted her at 4pm. PM started coming at 4pm on weekends and at 4:30pm on weekdays. Slowly, laws of induction started taking their course and she started coming at 4pm on Mondays, then Tuesdays followed, till my mother realised that 4pm was now the rule rather than the exception. Yesterday, when she came at 4pm, there was a minor argument at the end of which PM walked out for good.

At first, we were lost for words. We had got so used to PM, that it was difficult to imagine what life would be without her. Soon however, Chatterjee Junior ahem! Yours truly stepped in. It’s a weekend today and I volunteered to clean the house. Unfortunately, things are tougher for me than for PM and it has nothing to do with the fact that she is experienced in the matters of housekeeping. There are numerous constraints involved when a member of the household tries her hand at work meant for maids. Even though our neighbours know that we are short of a hand, I must not be observed cleaning the house. So, all windows were shut, the balcony was abandoned and the house was miraculously cleaned, seemingly without any human intervention. While I am technologically challenged, my parents are gadget freaks. There is a special mop reserved for use when the maid servant is not around. While PM can have it easy with a bucket and rag, I have to use this special mop (SM) which only my father knows how to assemble and my mother knows how to dismantle. SM consists of a really long pole and a flat blade. A special kind of cloth is wrapped round the blade which is then attached to the pole. As I was struggling to mop the house with SM, my grand father who was taking a nap, woke up with a start wondering what I was doing in his room, with a medieval martial weapon. My grand mother looked on with curiosity, following me from room to room tsching tsching that things had to come to this, that the daughter of the house had to do such menial tasks and I merrily worked, hoping that this exercise would help me lose some calories.

Things are fine for now, but I wonder what we will do during weekdays, when I shall not be around. 30 minutes - cost PM a job and me some calories and my mother - a whole lot of bother. Time will not be able to heal this one!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey... i gotta say, interesting blog...
i hope u dont mind me putting up a link to your blog on mine...
tc, and cheers!

Anwesha Chatterjee said...

Sure!!!! No issues...

Birds of a feather!

Debarshi Roy said...

I have nt read such a good blog in ages. keep it up.

KB said...

llloollllzz... i have also tried to "help" my mom in such situations. but well ahem...

APUGONNAB said...

Oh damn! Your mom really is bearing the brunt of it all! Its people like PM that makes me think our economy is in the boom.. how else then, can we explain her ease in walking out, only to know for sure she can get another job across the road?!

Oirpus said...

geez... I now understand the hidden reasons why you are so tied up lately
BTW I really am a bit bored... thanks for the reply...

APUGONNAB said...

Ok..next post babe! Are you That busy????

Anwesha Chatterjee said...

@ Pinku Da: Thank you so much!!! You flatter me!!!!

@Princess: Mothers can be very demanding at times. Always steer to the left when you see danger.

@Aparna: I am terribly busy and seem to have run out of topics. Howz u doing girl?

@Oirpus: Besides mopping floors, I also do a little "extra" work to earn a living - you should know!

Oirpus said...

WOW!
What a retaliation... Yeah I know... and you are good at it.
:-)