CHICKEN OR MUTTON

I happened to read this post from one of the blogs that I regularly follow... This is so true... and touching... 


Reminds me of a similar experience last year during my visit to Mumbai... 


Our cleaning maid (her name is Rashmi) had joined just a couple of months before my visit and my mom was pretty satisfied with the quality of her work and her punctuality... 


BTW, the quality of her work really amounts to clean floors, spic and span furniture and sparkling utensils with no mistake... There is no six sigma here... It has to be clean, irrespective of how hot and dusty it is outside... The dishes should shine, irrespective of whatever has been consumed in them... 


And punctuality translates to coming to work twice a day, every day, 24 * 7 * 365... There are no sick leaves, casual leaves, no long weekends... 


And if she met the "demands" of her employer, it was deemed as just "met expectations"... She can not fight for an "E" or an "O" because her salary hike and bonus does not change based on all that... It depends on the mercy, whim and fancy of her employer... 




Her husband used to work at a local gas agency distributing gas cylinders... He was worried about losing his job because all the local consumers were switching to pipeline gas instead of cylinder gas... Once the transition was complete, no one would need cylinders and that will mean that he will not have a job... 


Just a week before we reached Mumbai, her husband met with a serious accident at work... He broke his leg with 3 fractures and suffered serious injuries on the head... He was unconscious for 2 days... As soon as he regained consciousness, the owner of the gas agency got him transferred to a government hospital, paid his pending salary and "honorably" discharged him from his duties... He frankly refused paying any further medical expenses or give him any money to take care of their bills... According to her, the owner is a god because he took care of the bills until then because she could not afford to pay anything at that point... 

The government hospital deemed his condition to be good enough to be discharged and gave a long list of medicines for a quicker recovery... The doctors also recommended healthy nutritious diet to ensure that the medicines are not too strong... Just the medicines and recommended diet would come to about 2.5K per month... Her salary amounted to about 2K per month only and they did not have any savings... 


I felt so bad for her that I gave some money to her through my mother, just to ensure that her husband has enough good food... My mom gave them (Rashmi and her husband) breakfast and one good meal every day until her husband could get back on his feet (pun intended)... I also ensured that our family doctor takes care of her husband's injuries and all the bills are paid directly by me... 


Her response -- I will keep your house cleaner and be more punctual... 

1 comment:

Sneha said...

Its a very good lesson for us to realize how lucky we are!!