Domestic Help

I know people would think I am crazy for saying this.... I didnt particularly like living in London.... yes yes it was a really lovely city, broad roads, clean streets, lots of history, lots of cold, lots of white people, lots of international students, variety of cuisines etc etc etc.... but for some strange reason I just didnt feel at home..... this was not my home and I was not a fit there ... No dont get me wrong I was not abused or illtreated but for me everything back home made more sense....

I have often been given sympathy by people for having come back to mumbai.... after all I had left the better lifestyle that whites have to come back to the "non exciting regional" life of brown people... Are you crazy?? Some were even mean about it - making snide remarks about how I had come back to the same life and didnt "improve" on it by jumping on to the bandwagon of white people and their brown slaves..... and to be honest - I fell for this tirade... I remember landing in Mumbai and feeling lost and disoriented in the city.... and I remember feeling sad that I had left London.... going to my sisters place lessened the pain a bit but the overwhelming feeling in my mind was WHY DID I COME BACK?

The reasons why I came back were many and too detailed to set out over here.... but if I had indeed stayed back I would have been doing it only to conform to the societal norm of being in London rather than being there because I wanted to stay in London... Now dont get me wrong - I would not have turned down a top law firm to come back but let me put it this way I didnt make much of an effort to stay back.....

Why you ask? Again the primary reason for this was the sense of "not belonging"... I was always going to be an outsider, a brown amongst whites, an Indian immigrant whose mere presence was somehow indicative of the backwardness of my country..... and I would miss all the events in my family ....

But as curious as it sounds the one single thing I missed in my life in London was .. hold your breath.... My loyal Bai!!! Yes the lady who comes to my house, cleans my house, washes my clothes, washes my plates, cooks for me - all for the grand price of about 10 pounds a month!.... I cant survive without my Bai coming to my house everyday.... IT IS ABOSLUTELY CRITICAL FOR MY EXISTENCE .... I am too busy to clean my house everyday so someone who does it for me is akin to a life saver.....

Okkk stop judging me and my life style .... you know it as much as I do that it is not easy to be working and maintaining a clean house ..... and those who can do this - please tell me the steroids you are using...

Speaking of help around the house Baby George has started helping around the house.... one of the persistent problems faced by any Mumbaikar is the curious pigeon who comes into your house... and my sisters house is infested with pigeons ... and everytime one enters the house my sister runs and starts hitting the cupboard trying to scare off the pesky birds.... and her assistant in this is Baby George .... however he has taken his job so seriously that anytime he hears the word "pigeon" he starts hitting the cupboard and gets very angry when there is no pigeon flying out.........

Pigeons better beware!..... One year olds are the latest terrors in town...