My bitter sweet love story

Choose your mother in law, not your partner. I disagree

Choose your boss, not your job. I disagree

Choose your house help, not your landlord. I cannot agree more.

Just before the lockdown amid COVID 19, my husband and I fled to our hometown fearing death due to corona in an unknown city away from our closed ones. We figured if the pandemic eradicates human race from earth, it would be wise to breathe our last in our soil than become unidentified dead bodies in a metro city.

Thus we packed our bags and left home for a hiatus at hometown, which turned out to be more than 6 months long. We were getting so used to the pampering at home, but as they say, ‘All good things will come to an end’. We had to return to the city for work and half-heartedly, we returned.

While travelling back after more than 6 months I never had the concern about our rented apartment as we had our house help, Githa who used to come to clean our place regularly. I used to constantly speak to her about taking care of the place more so because it is rented. I would never be worried if it's our own place as my standards of cleanliness are questionable. More on it later. Githa goes to some 5 or 6 houses in the neighborhood and takes around half an hour to one hour to finish her work at each house. I am not exaggerating but she does things at my place in half an hour which both my husband and I together takes a day to finish. I don’t know how she does it.

We reached our apartment after an 8-hour drive. As I entered the apartment and walked on the floor, my feet could sense dust. I did not expect that even though Githa has not come for 2 days. But, why blame her, the atmosphere of the city is filled with so much dust. I went on to the kitchen to get some water and I let out a cry out of despair. There were dead cockroaches on the floor, unkempt shelves, half of the vessels in the sink and the refrigerator looked hopeless.

I had been making sure she receives her monthly salary as she is also trying her best to make ends meet for her family. She assured me during the calls that she is doing everything as instructed. I felt cheated.

I made up my mind to find a replacement. Many a time, I was disappointed with her but this time she crossed all limits.

The next day, I met her outside and I told her about the mess she had left and I got really angry at her. I told her not to come for a week as we had come from another state. But I really didn’t want her to come back. Unfortunately, you plan something and the universe has something else for you. As I was rushing to work the next day, I found a heap of utensils inside the kitchen sink unwashed. I felt I was making the kitchen even messier and out of no choice, I presented the heap to my maid outside the apartment. After a while, she brought the dish washed vessels all shining back to me and I felt so relieved.

After a week, I let my maid inside the apartment as I realized I could not go about without some help and left for work.

I was in for a surprise as I came back from the office. The floors were shiny, the kitchen looked perfect, the containers in the shelves organized neatly and the bathroom was spotless. There is no sign of a cockroach, a lizard or any other organisms visible to the human eye inside the house. I could not do it in 7 days and she did it in 1 hour. I don’t know how she does it.

Like any love story, things between us came back to normal slowly and then one fine day as I was rushing to work, she rang me and said she will be on leave for a week. This started me thinking of replacing her for I don’t know how manyeth time.