thank you for your regular visits to my website and for your intelligent, informative comments. You say that you disagree with me but on reading your entire post I would say we are on the same wavelength I Mumbai
maids working in families with the right values are fairly well paid and very treated. Of course they will earn much less than a maid in the USA
Have a great New Year.

I agree and disagree with your article as also with some of your readers’ views.

Well, first of all let me inform you that from the time I was born till I got married, we always had domestic help for every little thing in the house, the reason being that my mother absolutely abhorred anything labeled ‘housework’ and my father was a henpecked little man who doted on his wife. Growing up I don’t think I even washed a spoon in my life, and naturally with my mother’s wonderful example had no interest whatever in any type of housework till I got married and realized I will be going to live in a place where we could not afford maids even if my husband were henpecked which he most certainly is not. So in the 7 months it took for me to acquire my US visa, I resigned my job and went for cooking classes, learnt to cook & do other things around the house, which was of course very difficult in the beginning considering I had trouble turning the gas stove on as I didn’t even know how to light a match.

Now on account of the above we have been exposed to different types of maids from different parts of the country including from Bihar. There are both good and bad eggs among them as it is in all other fields including the sacrosanct medical field. So while a few of them or maybe more than a few can be called rogues, scoundrels, immoral, thieves, lazy bums and dimwits as you say, there are more than a few of them who are good, honest, hardworking etc. The problem is like with most humans, you cannot usually tell by looking at their faces. You have to experience them to really know which category they belong to, which could prove expensive both economically & emotionally.

However the problem that is prevalent in most Indian houses is the exploitation of these poor, helpless, illiterates who for the most part don’t know anything better and the sanctuary of living in a home however much they may be harassed and scolded is better than living on the streets. I wish the sahibs and memsahibs in Bombay could be educated on proper treatment of their maids and I wish they are made to realize that these maids however poor, illiterate & dumb they may be should at least be able to expect a somewhat decent life which they are denied.

A few months ago, even before I read your article, I realized this when I heard the story of ‘Annie George’ an Indian orphan girl who works as a maid in an American household. I met her at an Indian Association social gathering and the person who had brought her along (who was a friend of mine) asked me if I could give Annie a ride home as it was on the way home for me to which I agreed. I admit I was curious as to how from an orphanage in Bombay, she had ended up here in the US. On the way back I asked her and she told me her story in her own words. I can’t be sure she has the dates & a few other details correct especially her age, as she looks older than she says she is. Anyway, she was living in a Bombay orphanage in Byculla when at the age of 4 she was presumably adopted and taken to live in a big house in Marine drive. Annie vividly recalls walking along the sea face promenade, the Queen’s necklace, Crawford Market etc. In the house she was taught to cook, clean, etc. They spoke English to her, but did not teach her to read or write. When she reached around 20 years, she was handed over to the American family she now lives with, who brought her back to the US with them. She works as a live in maid, doing all the cooking, cleaning, gardening etc for them which would normally have been prohibitively expensive to the American family. When I asked Annie, how much she was paid, she had absolutely no idea, as she does not understand any commercial transactions.
However she is treated very well, given enough to eat, has a self contained room to herself which opens out into the garden which she is also responsible for tending and which she enjoys.
So even if she is underpaid or not paid at all, don’t you think she is better off than most of the poor, illiterate maids in Bombay?

Sheila Titus

real thought provoking.
how are you, we fine , had real good heritage walk of Indian Hextonians, we all remembered you. regards …………milan

thank you for regularly visiting my website and for your useful comments
families with lots of children were being used to having domestic help for a long time somehow treat their domestic help by family members and are able to retain them.

I share your apprehensions. It is not that I’m lucky. I invest a lot in my relationships
with the domestic help. Respect, constant two-way communication, fairness and justice and about all the belief they are being created in the image and likeness of God that we have been. Also the ability to accept that no two people are alike and that you have to adapt sometimes ask for forgiveness and experience humiliation.
Did not Jesus do that in his relationships, including ingratitude and rejection?
I shared my experience but I know I cannot transfer it to other people.

Just returned after visiting my daughter and son-in-law in Cambridge, UK
each one of them is both boss and domestic help. Latest technology in the kitchen is of course a big help.

so nice to get a comment from you. Thank you for taking the trouble to visit my website. Just returned from Cambridge after visiting daughter who got married in February.

How are George and his family doing do keep me posted and drop them when you have the time

You are one of the few and lucky ones, to have a honest and faithful domestic help. In the good old days, the domestic help were like a part of the family members and were inducted with all kindness are care to them, maybe with more than they gave.

Today, the scene has changed. The domestic help is the boss and the boss is the domestic’s help. The boss of the house whoever it may be, no longer can ditctate orders or instructions. If you are a tough management guy or gal, then may be you can give some, but ristricted to certain degree of orders. The domestic demands are now days more than the Union Leaders deamand of a Multi organisation.

No doubth, the luxury of having a domestic help these days, are only for the bosses of the house who are strong in negotations at their factory or work place, but are poor in negotationns with the domestic help of the house, except for a few.

That’s why we don’t have domestic help in US, we are the boss as well as the domestic help of our house.

Take care, let the articles keep coming and God Bless

Dominic D’Souza
Aurora, CO, US