Maid of Honour

We tried out homeopathy medicine for the first time for our maid whose cold and cough are just not going even after 20 days. Though the doctor assured her that the cough would go in two days(that was 5 days ago), nothing has happened so far and I can see that she would want me to take her to another doctor next time. But with the recommendations that I've received for homeopathy, I want to continue with it for some time.

Coming to maids, I don't know how it happened that way, three out of the four maids I've had so far have been illiterate, the other one having flunked her 9th standard. I asked my current one to learn reading at least but she says she does not need it! She was very eager to own a mobile but I don't see the same eagerness in learning to operate it on her own. She's very content asking me to check whose call she missed and if the battery is low etc which I would like her to do herself. It's sometimes funny just to observe her mannerisms and thought processes. She's proud of the fact that she owns a camera phone whereas neither of us has one; if her wish prevails, she would want every jazzy stuff that our neighbours have bought by us too; she loves gaudy colours as a rule; she wants my children to be under her firm control(once she fought with me that my 4 old son cries when I go out of the house!!); never wants to admit that she's done a mistake, however big or small it may be; is very clean both in person as well as money matters; hates chocolate in all forms because it looks dirty!

My maid, her mother and both her sisters and all the ladies in her house(she has only a nephew for a male member) have worked in some or the other house almost all their lives but all of them still live a hand-to-mouth life. She had worked for a good salary for the whole of last year yet when she had to come here, she had to borrow money for the travel expenses of 400 rupees. I asked her what happened to all her earnings and she says some of it she's given as a loan to somebody and the rest of it simply vanished for running the house. Life in a village is painful as I can see - people drop into the house from nowhere and can stay on till they please if they are close relatives. Hardly anybody helps you in real need but will do anything to spoil your chances. My maid has almost singlehandedly got a decent house built for herself and her mother but now she says there are two more permanent residents and innumerable people who pile on every day. The PDS system in her place is the worst I have seen - their BPL card gets grains at a price higher that what an APL card in my place gets! And what they get is hardly enough for the month even for the card members alone. But one thing, whether good or bad I can't say, is that she is not worried about the future too much and is very happy with the current state of affairs. When I look at her in such state of bliss, it makes me have another look at my own life and the worries that are almost constantly at the back of my mind.