Meera & Me

Meera & Me

It was a recent realization, Meera my house maid who has been working with us for the last  4 years is as old as I am. It came to be as a little shocker coz she does not look her age, she looks much more older & mature than her age. “Dinky, aaj mi kaam nahi karnaar. Mazaa happy budday aahe aaj. J Tai aaz dinky kaam karnaar aahe” Tai who is actually my Aai, got the shock of her life hearing I will be cleaning up the house today.

Meera – around 5 feet tall, broad smile, sparkling eyes, dark with kinda sharp features, on the plump side, is the 3^rd daughter in her family, married to her own uncle(mama) & has 2 kids now. Living in a joint family she works as a house maid in my neighbor’s n my house. She cooks, cleans, washes, etc & has very strong views about certain things in life. Even after being repeatedly instructed by my Amma, she will come exactly during or just after lunch time(dad would have juuuusssstttt gone to sleep). “kai karnaar??? Kiti kaam hota tikade. Aani tya tar mala sodatch nahi” will be her explanation for coming at that time. My amma’s version will be “she will never finish her work n come here, she will sit there & chat with all of them” (amma can actually hear her, as our kitchen & my neighbors drawing room are kinda connected). Offer her chai, nashta, fruits, etc & pat comes the reply “aaz mazaa upvaas aahe”. She fasts almost everyday even on Sundays. Will never ask for her salary, loves chocolates, imitates me & loves being teased by me. Any festival or special occasion Meera will be all dressed in her new bright coloured saree, gold jewellery & beautiful gajraa’s. I love irritating her & teasing her a lot. She doesn’t mind it either. J

Meera started working with us when I moved to Andheri(w) coz of my work place. I thought it was a better idea to move into a rented apartment than to travel 3 hours one way. Convenience was important for me than money. Ask Meera & she’ll say – train travel is not that bad, atleast you save the rent money. You could buy something from the money that you could have saved. “lagna saathi kaam aala asta na…… “ married at the age of around 14, Meera delivered her 1^st baby before she celebrated her 1^st wedding anniversary. In the 4^th year of her marriage she had her 2^nd kid. Loaded with the responsibility of a wife, mother, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, aunt, she still manages to take care & fulfill all her responsibilities with ease. She is well informed about all the activities/gossip happening in the society & has her own point-of-view on the same.(which is more logical & practical than the secretary of my society). Meet her in the evening & she will be all decked heading for the evening chores at my neighbors place. Worried about how her kids will study & clear their exams she starts cooking & discussing the latest happening in the Marathi TV serials.

The smile on her face hardly fades away. When I am alone at home, she will sit & chat with me, discussing TV shows, recipes, kids, studies & my career. She will do the extra dusting, cleaning & put all the stuff in place when Amma is not there (wont ever do it when she is around, her explanation for this “Dinky office la zaate na, kaam karun damun yete”) . Though I cook & take care of myself, she will unfailingly ask me “jevlis ka?? Kai khalla??” etc. She gets protective when my parents are not at home. The transformation from a mother, daughter-in-law, maid to being my protective buddy is so smooth that it surprises me. Makes me wonder if I could ever manage so many roles & responsibilities with such an ease.

Without even basic schooling Meera manages her finances without any flaw. Grocery, school fee’s, bills, etc. Me earning more than 100% of her salary & having a certain financial expertise cant manage to my PNL accounts. After all her monthly expenses she manages to save & buy herself her favorite earring. I have been saving for the last 3 months to buy my favorite one’s ;-) but still not managed to save enough. Hers are small gold earring & mine are diamonds.  :P

Same age, different backgrounds – educational, family, financial, etc basic needs almost the same. But point-of-view, expertise, perspective so different. Makes me wonder is formal education more important than experience. Food for her is basic & healthy, food for me a way of troubling my amma with my choices. Its bright, colourful & jhatak clothes for her, brands don’t make any difference to her. It has to be a Biba, levis, etc for me.  Give her Rs 500 & she will save it for something important or emergency, Rs 500 for me will be few more cups of coffee. (“tikde zaaun, itki mahaag coffee ka peeta??? Ghari karun peeta yet nahi???” – Meera yells at me when her Tai(my amma) tells her about my spends). Watching a movie with the family is what matter for her 

unlike me who needs a box of cheese popcorn along with the pepsi in the red lounge.

Small things – different perspectives. Same points – different agendas. Issues – different point of view. Thou, Meera is not educated as I am, I have loads to learn from her, let it be multitasking, understanding people, maintaining finances, etc. But one thing she needs to learn – coming home early & not when my dad has jussssttttttt gone to sleep J