Have a new cleaning lady, Monju. Strangely comes from the same place as Protima (my legendary cook & cleaning lady from DB).About the same age 55+, tiny as they come, cotton sari clad, smiling with pan blackened teeth. Not as wisely & beautiful as Protima, a bit sillier maybe with a childlike smile.
Takes ages doing the chores but does them so well you are dont mind waiting.The younger ones are not that thorough.May be they have a lot on their minds apart from the work, kids back home, husband that need feeding.May be they just want to finish & move on.
But somehow I do feel it has to do with the generation & its bringing up.Most of these women come from parts of rural West Bengal. Having lived close to nature in their early years they move to the capital after marriage.Knows the appropriate food for the weather, the festivals & the right observances but above all an innate understanding of life & nature.
Probably spend all their lives after that doing domestic labour, cleaning & cooking to add to the household income.Most have been with the same households for years together.In those times when the wages were not as high & jobs not that abundant.
So they did their chores thoroughly, like they probably would at home.Taking pleasure in doing them well. Earning trust & dependency.
Some of the house holds care for them as their own, taking them to doctors when ill & providing them with basic necessities on an as & when basis.
But these women are fragile, with age & living conditions & often work till they are physically incapable of doing so.
It is when they finally stop after a decade or more, that the households see the void they filled.By then it is often too late to be kinder than they have already been. But most households do I feel, wished they were kinder, cared more, done more.
Takes ages doing the chores but does them so well you are dont mind waiting.The younger ones are not that thorough.May be they have a lot on their minds apart from the work, kids back home, husband that need feeding.May be they just want to finish & move on.
But somehow I do feel it has to do with the generation & its bringing up.Most of these women come from parts of rural West Bengal. Having lived close to nature in their early years they move to the capital after marriage.Knows the appropriate food for the weather, the festivals & the right observances but above all an innate understanding of life & nature.
Probably spend all their lives after that doing domestic labour, cleaning & cooking to add to the household income.Most have been with the same households for years together.In those times when the wages were not as high & jobs not that abundant.
So they did their chores thoroughly, like they probably would at home.Taking pleasure in doing them well. Earning trust & dependency.
Some of the house holds care for them as their own, taking them to doctors when ill & providing them with basic necessities on an as & when basis.
But these women are fragile, with age & living conditions & often work till they are physically incapable of doing so.
It is when they finally stop after a decade or more, that the households see the void they filled.By then it is often too late to be kinder than they have already been. But most households do I feel, wished they were kinder, cared more, done more.
