Unsung Heroes Part 1
The Housekeeper
It hit me when
my son said “Mumma, why doesn’t aunty have lunch with us on the table?” Little
did he know the stereotypes of this world and how has work been categorized on
the basis of the caste still in India.
I usually wake
up at 6:30 every weekday, Jog and exercise for an hour then come back wake my
husband and the kid up and tell the maid what to cook and go to take shower.
Coming back from the shower We all have breakfast and I pack the tiffins for us
and we all leave together for the office. We drop our kid on our way and my
husband drops me off to the metro station and leaves for his office. I usually
plan the day, a day ahead of it. I have all the to-do-list ready with all the
tasks and meeting handy. The day usually starts with Sync-up meeting and well
also ends with one. I reach by 7:30 pm have dinner which is already been ready
and have some family time and sleep.
Now if I think a
little bit more, Maid would have been waking up by 5am and may be earlier than
that. She makes lunch for her home makes everything ready for her family and
then leaves for our house to work. She manages to cook, clean house after we
leave also takes care of our little son Aryan when he doesn’t go to school and
leaves for another house. Same goes on for other 5-6 houses in a day and then
after 11pm going back to her house doing her house work and spending few
minutes of family time sleeps and wakes up at 5am again and gets ready for the
next day. This is just what I can see in a day for her. Addition to this, they
do not have life and health coverage no paid holidays and basically no holidays
even on weekends as houses like us need them on weekends more than anything, no
bonuses, no travel reimbursement, no family time and If I start listing down
all the difficulties, they face it would take longer than a day at least. On
the top they are excluded from the families whom they work for, they are not
even to share the table to have meal, in some societies they have to take
stairs instead of the lifts, in few they have different lifts and they are the
first ones to be accused if something gets stolen in the house. I couldn’t stop
thinking much about her.
I heard Maushi
many times humming songs and was happy with her work. Her voice is so
euphonious that sometimes just listening to her songs I remember my mother
singing lullabies to me. I doubt that Maushi has thought about pursuing a
career in singing because the day before yesterday I read an article about
Deepika Mhatre.
This comedic phenomenon
draws inspiration from her real-life experiences of segregation while working
as a housekeeper in upmarket Mumbai social orders. "Everywhere I worked, I
observed easily missed nuances that madams do. That has evolved into my
stand-up comedy material” she says.
Deepika Mhatre,
a regular maid, finds humor in her tiresome tasks of providing for her large
family of five, moving between Nala Sopara, wherever she resides, and Malad.
Deepika then delivers this humor on stage in stand-up comedy gigs. You won't
always link stand-up comedy with the experiences of a house servant. Still,
life did not enable her to live comfortably, and unbelievably she became an
overnight super comedian almost exclusively tied to an urban location,
grievances, and experiences.
She rises at
4:00 a.m., gets ready, and goes to the local Mumbai train station—not just to
persuade people to think, but also to sell imitation jewellery to people riding
the train. After completing her train rounds at 6:30, Deepika Mhatre, 43, goes
to the first of the five households she cooks at. However, did she shift her
job path from a servant to a stand-up comic given that she spends her entire
day changing states for families. Due to her health concerns, Deepika still
works as a cook, although her workload has significantly decreased. She now
sells jewellery in local trains. The only difference is that she now
occasionally receives a gig when completing her responsibilities within the
five.
(Ref: https://doerlife.com/deepika-mhatre/)
As, I couldn’t reply to my kid with any wise words. So, I decided to correct my actions and called Sarla Maushi to sit with us on the table. I hope someday Maushi also lives her dream and becomes a great example to many of us. We come across many people in life. Some of them truly inspire us to be fearless, emotionally, string and brave. Instead of loosing hope, we must be optimistic. Life always sends a ray of hope, when we are surrounded by grieves. Me must never despair when life offers us its dark side. It is high time that we lower down the invisible walls we have created between us and the housekeepers and make sure that preventing racism and castism doesn’t become part of our speeches only but also of our actions. Just paying minimum wages will not do anything, we need to make a few gestures to show them how important they are to us and how they are the unsung heroes of our lives. These small actions would really bring a smile to their faces and hopefully enlighten their days after all. Actions do matter….!
NOTE: -
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