"Mama what does Jay Shree mean?" asked Roshni. Well ... er ...um... its hailing the lord I guess darling. I also read later in a blog that it means a "Lady who is victorious"... Knowing Jayshree that seems more like it!!
Jayshree ... my beloved house maid is about 35 years in age. She is the only daughter of her parents and hails from a town called Sholapur in Maharashtra, India. She was brought up by her uneducated mother as her father passed away at a very young age. She was a good student and studied all the way till the 10th grade and was a favorite amongst friends. She is quite a nice looking woman although she has a shrill voice. Her mother got paranoid of the possibility of her going astray, so she cut short her studies and married her off to a Tailor from Sholapur called Bharat Mungshe. Bharat was 4 years older to Jayshree. They have three children and live in a slum at Adarsh Nagar, Goregaon. Her oldest son is Nilesh who is 19, followed by 18 year old Shailesh who is the brat in her life and last but not the least is her daughter Neelam who is 16 and an ardent student in the 10th grade. Jayshree wants her daughter to complete her studies.
Jayshree is an ideal Househelp for us. She comes in to work every morning just as I am leaving for work. She does the morning dishes, cleans up the house (jhadoo-katka-dusting-bathroom routine), washes the clothes, gives the kids a hot snack when they return from school and cleans their tiffins and finally also cooks the evening meal [including salad and rotis:))] -- in brief she is a blessing in disguise!! The good thing about her is that she is intelligent and can read and write. So each time I teach her a new recipe she writes it down to the last detail and uses it for future reference :) The kids and she have a mutual feeling of love for each other and generally have a grand time together. So, she is here virtually the whole day and has lunched tea with us, does all the work and yet she is not in our face like a full time maid at the end of the day. The only inconvenience is the dishes in the night and the BMR ... but frankly all of it has now settled into a routine that we have gotten comfortable with.
On the 10th of Nov 07, it was the New year of the Hindu calender and a day after Diwali, she shrilled at me "Bhabi mobile kitne mein milega?" So I started off with well depends Jayshree ... on your budget, purpose and who its for!? "Mobile kisko chahiye?" It appeared that her all time brat Shailesh had not eaten any food for the past three days and was sulking around the house asking for a mobile!!? The older one does not have one, the sister hasn't asked for one but this baby of the family was voicing his desires vociferously to the effect that he had brought the whole house down. Bharat and she had been fighting like cats and generally there was misery at home. So as soon as I had given her salary of the month she wanted me to buy her son the mobile.
I told her that the cheapest one could start at about Rs.2000 and could of course go upto Rs.40000. He I believe wanted a Motorola which had a camera, FM radio and of course have the other basic functions! So I said why does he want such a fancy mobile to which she had no answer. Then she said, "Bhabi wo gaon ja raha hai aur usko gaon mein sabko dikhana hai!" I got really irritated with him for being so insensitive towards his parents. Jayshree barely earned Rs.4500 a month (she gets 3500 from us + another 1000 from another flat in our block) and her hubby earns another 7K -- they find it really difficult to get through the month with the mounting living expenses!
Anyway after being unable to convince her against the unnecessary expense she called for him to come to our place. I took them to a mobile store that sells mobiles and pre-paid cards near our place. He kept eyeing a 4K fancy looking flap-type Motorola with a camera and I kept bringing him back to the userfriendly and economical Nokia which cost 2.5K which had all the features except a camera. I got the shop keeper to convince him that the camera of the Motorola clicked worthless pictures and that the mobile too was fragile. Nokia is generally a proven mobile!!! Anyway after 45mins of really stressfull convincing he gave in to buy the Nokia alongwith a lifetime prepaid card which cost another 500 bucks ... All Jayshree was concerned was if it had FM radio? So I said "Haan Jayshree FM bhi hai aur Nokia ka achcha mobile hai" Sigh it really hurt to see poor Jayshree give away 3K for this heap of plastic ... so much for consumerism and India Shining and our economy growing!!
On the same day Jayshree also took our gas cylinder and the regulator with her on the promise that she will return it in a weeks time. She said that the kerosene gets very expensive during this time of the year and so requested that I lend her my cylinder. We discussed it and decided to give it to her as we now have the pipe gas that connects the whole building and have no need for the cylinders unless something happens to the pipe gas (God forbid!?). In any case, its been over a month since she took the cylinder and has been saying that she will return it soon as her own cylinder is awarded to her.
Today she tells me she fought with the gas suppliers as they are asking for her new ration card and only then will they give her a gas connection. She has already spent 700 bucks and gone to their office several times to follow up on the connection. Her current card is rendered useless as the place she is now renting to live in at Adarsh Nagar is not the address shown in her ration card. This so called card holds the address of her previuos home which she sold a few years ago. So now she's got to get a new card made and only then can she be allotted her own gas connection. This process could take another 2 months!? This means she will not return my cylinder for another 2 months and it also means she is indebted to us for the favour. The things that our system makes us suffer.
And to think that our dear Jayshree has to deal with all of this and get no support from her sons and husband to help her in making the situation any better. Time passed and sure enough Jayshree did get her own gas cylinder and finally returned ours with a big "Thank you Bhabhi".
Now you can imagine why I believe that the meaning victorious lady suits her!!
Jayshree ... my beloved house maid is about 35 years in age. She is the only daughter of her parents and hails from a town called Sholapur in Maharashtra, India. She was brought up by her uneducated mother as her father passed away at a very young age. She was a good student and studied all the way till the 10th grade and was a favorite amongst friends. She is quite a nice looking woman although she has a shrill voice. Her mother got paranoid of the possibility of her going astray, so she cut short her studies and married her off to a Tailor from Sholapur called Bharat Mungshe. Bharat was 4 years older to Jayshree. They have three children and live in a slum at Adarsh Nagar, Goregaon. Her oldest son is Nilesh who is 19, followed by 18 year old Shailesh who is the brat in her life and last but not the least is her daughter Neelam who is 16 and an ardent student in the 10th grade. Jayshree wants her daughter to complete her studies.
Jayshree is an ideal Househelp for us. She comes in to work every morning just as I am leaving for work. She does the morning dishes, cleans up the house (jhadoo-katka-dusting-bathroom routine), washes the clothes, gives the kids a hot snack when they return from school and cleans their tiffins and finally also cooks the evening meal [including salad and rotis:))] -- in brief she is a blessing in disguise!! The good thing about her is that she is intelligent and can read and write. So each time I teach her a new recipe she writes it down to the last detail and uses it for future reference :) The kids and she have a mutual feeling of love for each other and generally have a grand time together. So, she is here virtually the whole day and has lunched tea with us, does all the work and yet she is not in our face like a full time maid at the end of the day. The only inconvenience is the dishes in the night and the BMR ... but frankly all of it has now settled into a routine that we have gotten comfortable with.
On the 10th of Nov 07, it was the New year of the Hindu calender and a day after Diwali, she shrilled at me "Bhabi mobile kitne mein milega?" So I started off with well depends Jayshree ... on your budget, purpose and who its for!? "Mobile kisko chahiye?" It appeared that her all time brat Shailesh had not eaten any food for the past three days and was sulking around the house asking for a mobile!!? The older one does not have one, the sister hasn't asked for one but this baby of the family was voicing his desires vociferously to the effect that he had brought the whole house down. Bharat and she had been fighting like cats and generally there was misery at home. So as soon as I had given her salary of the month she wanted me to buy her son the mobile.
I told her that the cheapest one could start at about Rs.2000 and could of course go upto Rs.40000. He I believe wanted a Motorola which had a camera, FM radio and of course have the other basic functions! So I said why does he want such a fancy mobile to which she had no answer. Then she said, "Bhabi wo gaon ja raha hai aur usko gaon mein sabko dikhana hai!" I got really irritated with him for being so insensitive towards his parents. Jayshree barely earned Rs.4500 a month (she gets 3500 from us + another 1000 from another flat in our block) and her hubby earns another 7K -- they find it really difficult to get through the month with the mounting living expenses!
Anyway after being unable to convince her against the unnecessary expense she called for him to come to our place. I took them to a mobile store that sells mobiles and pre-paid cards near our place. He kept eyeing a 4K fancy looking flap-type Motorola with a camera and I kept bringing him back to the userfriendly and economical Nokia which cost 2.5K which had all the features except a camera. I got the shop keeper to convince him that the camera of the Motorola clicked worthless pictures and that the mobile too was fragile. Nokia is generally a proven mobile!!! Anyway after 45mins of really stressfull convincing he gave in to buy the Nokia alongwith a lifetime prepaid card which cost another 500 bucks ... All Jayshree was concerned was if it had FM radio? So I said "Haan Jayshree FM bhi hai aur Nokia ka achcha mobile hai" Sigh it really hurt to see poor Jayshree give away 3K for this heap of plastic ... so much for consumerism and India Shining and our economy growing!!
On the same day Jayshree also took our gas cylinder and the regulator with her on the promise that she will return it in a weeks time. She said that the kerosene gets very expensive during this time of the year and so requested that I lend her my cylinder. We discussed it and decided to give it to her as we now have the pipe gas that connects the whole building and have no need for the cylinders unless something happens to the pipe gas (God forbid!?). In any case, its been over a month since she took the cylinder and has been saying that she will return it soon as her own cylinder is awarded to her.
Today she tells me she fought with the gas suppliers as they are asking for her new ration card and only then will they give her a gas connection. She has already spent 700 bucks and gone to their office several times to follow up on the connection. Her current card is rendered useless as the place she is now renting to live in at Adarsh Nagar is not the address shown in her ration card. This so called card holds the address of her previuos home which she sold a few years ago. So now she's got to get a new card made and only then can she be allotted her own gas connection. This process could take another 2 months!? This means she will not return my cylinder for another 2 months and it also means she is indebted to us for the favour. The things that our system makes us suffer.
And to think that our dear Jayshree has to deal with all of this and get no support from her sons and husband to help her in making the situation any better. Time passed and sure enough Jayshree did get her own gas cylinder and finally returned ours with a big "Thank you Bhabhi".
Now you can imagine why I believe that the meaning victorious lady suits her!!
1 comment:
Jai Jay Shree! She is like every parent a slave to her bacchaas' whims..anything for our babies, no? What a great woman she sounds like and so good of you to take the time out of your life and take the spoilt biy to the mobile store.
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