I have been lucky to have found house help immediately on setting up home, its all thanks to the property manager who has linked us with the security chappie of the building next door. His wife has been coming by. A young, cheerful and good worker she turned out to be. With the same cheer and warmth she quoted her price for sweeping and mopping the house that nearly melted me down into a pool of sweat and shock. I tried to negotiate and she retorted back with “kya aapka puraana ghar itna badaa thaa kya?” This time I squirmed and squeaked that it wasn’t this big but nearly this big (haha!). Anyway I had to look for a more permanent arrangement since this young cheerful thing was not free during the time slots that I wanted her to work here.
So came Mrs. P. She comes from a far away place. Says she grew up in Ulsoor and has always worked here and therefore familiar with this area. While I was looking for full time help (8.30am to 5pm), Mrs. P said she can come at 9am and stay on till 4pm. House help rates, i have discovered are inline with the price tags you see in the designer stores on 100ft road! So we agreed on a price (still high, but felt like I got a discount!). I thought a full time maid would spend 6-8hours in my house. I really do not have that much work to assign, but they can always take a break, cant they? Turns out that Mrs. P does not want a break, she take off to another place after putting in 2 hours at my place, returns after 2 hours (wanted 1 hour off, but now it has become 2 hours!), puts in another 2 hours work and then swiftly flies away. So I pay this hefty sum of money for half the time she spends in my house. When I called the better-half’s aunt who also lives in Indiranagar, she cheekily told me, ‘Welcome to Indiranagar’  🙂