Made by a paid maid
As the world's economy melts and the true result of unfettered capitalism is being experienced by sociologists; and as the investment banking sector is just disappearing from the face of the world dousing the hopes of hundreds of aspiring graduates from top business schools of the world, there is one unexplored sector in India that continues to deliver double digit growth and is a potential next big thing after investment banking. This sector is right now highly unorganized, mostly dominated by extremely skilful and tactful, though underpaid, labor force whose efficiency could only be matched by their effectiveness. No, I am not talking about our IT industry here (which is now highly organized). The focus is on the servant maids who work in most of our homes.
It is hard to miss the similarities between the two sectors though. The high dependence on people, lack of skills or interest in-house to perform the job thereby necessitating outsourcing, availability of resources with needed level of skills and the willingness to work for low wages - all these demand comparison. The only difference, of course, is that IT has evolved faster and created the demand for the SM sector.
It usually starts with the low end work like cleaning utensils and washing clothes. Over time, the lady of the house starts appreciating the capabilities and value addition that the maid brings to the table and outsources some more work - like cutting vegetables and even baking roties. As the trust and mutual understanding improves the maid becomes a trusted partner and starts bringing home the kids from school - one of the top end jobs. More often than not, as more work is outsourced and maid becomes an integral part of the home operations, there is more happiness in that home as there is more time to focus on the core domestic issues. May be.
What are core domestic issues? The question begs. I have no idea what those are but as a consequence to the outsourcing of domestic chores, there is more bandwidth to, say, concentrate on the child's future. But if one has already put them in good schools which make them study 'advanced mathematics' at the age of 5, what can a parent who never studied 'advanced mathematics' do? So the mother tries to teach the kid something about the 'unadvanced mathematics' - the one she learnt while at school. The child is sympathetic and understanding and tries to cope with both. Then the child's non-school time of the day is partitioned into 2 hour segments with each partition allocated to things like dance classes, music classes, swimming classes, tennis classes and so on. Essentially childhood transforms into a saga of unending classes. And that is why when they grow up people get categorized into two categories overall - the class and the mass. The class is of course the one consisting of the aforementioned kids - now grown up, while the mass consists of those kids whose mothers were working as house maids and hence had no free time to send them to various classes. Not to digress too much from the core domestic issues, the outsourcing thus forms the basis for the societal framework - accepting that busy childhoods are now a fact of life - which is now a self feeding system.
The lady of the house still has time left, a lot of it, after all this. Like the CEO of a firm that outsources its operations, the lady tends to focus on things that are external to the home. Things like visiting guest experience and their feedback, new gadget acquisitions, joint ventures with the neighbours, long term strategies to survive and aspire for leadership positions in the neighbourhood etc become key focus areas. Sometimes concerns of operational efficiency or annual negotiation of payment terms create a need to replace the existing maid with a new one - leading to further brainstorming and strategising, may be even poaching. Some of the more enterprising ones also venture out to tap the potential of the real estate market while some others get into serious business and give the man of the house a run for his relevance. The possibilities are limitless and life becomes such a wide canvas that one can paint forever.
And finally, when the day ends and as the family gets together for some quality bonding time, each one has a story to narrate for the day. Interesting anecdotes, clean house, fresh clothes, great food and a tired child mark the dinner time. All made by a paid maid.
It is hard to miss the similarities between the two sectors though. The high dependence on people, lack of skills or interest in-house to perform the job thereby necessitating outsourcing, availability of resources with needed level of skills and the willingness to work for low wages - all these demand comparison. The only difference, of course, is that IT has evolved faster and created the demand for the SM sector.
It usually starts with the low end work like cleaning utensils and washing clothes. Over time, the lady of the house starts appreciating the capabilities and value addition that the maid brings to the table and outsources some more work - like cutting vegetables and even baking roties. As the trust and mutual understanding improves the maid becomes a trusted partner and starts bringing home the kids from school - one of the top end jobs. More often than not, as more work is outsourced and maid becomes an integral part of the home operations, there is more happiness in that home as there is more time to focus on the core domestic issues. May be.
What are core domestic issues? The question begs. I have no idea what those are but as a consequence to the outsourcing of domestic chores, there is more bandwidth to, say, concentrate on the child's future. But if one has already put them in good schools which make them study 'advanced mathematics' at the age of 5, what can a parent who never studied 'advanced mathematics' do? So the mother tries to teach the kid something about the 'unadvanced mathematics' - the one she learnt while at school. The child is sympathetic and understanding and tries to cope with both. Then the child's non-school time of the day is partitioned into 2 hour segments with each partition allocated to things like dance classes, music classes, swimming classes, tennis classes and so on. Essentially childhood transforms into a saga of unending classes. And that is why when they grow up people get categorized into two categories overall - the class and the mass. The class is of course the one consisting of the aforementioned kids - now grown up, while the mass consists of those kids whose mothers were working as house maids and hence had no free time to send them to various classes. Not to digress too much from the core domestic issues, the outsourcing thus forms the basis for the societal framework - accepting that busy childhoods are now a fact of life - which is now a self feeding system.
The lady of the house still has time left, a lot of it, after all this. Like the CEO of a firm that outsources its operations, the lady tends to focus on things that are external to the home. Things like visiting guest experience and their feedback, new gadget acquisitions, joint ventures with the neighbours, long term strategies to survive and aspire for leadership positions in the neighbourhood etc become key focus areas. Sometimes concerns of operational efficiency or annual negotiation of payment terms create a need to replace the existing maid with a new one - leading to further brainstorming and strategising, may be even poaching. Some of the more enterprising ones also venture out to tap the potential of the real estate market while some others get into serious business and give the man of the house a run for his relevance. The possibilities are limitless and life becomes such a wide canvas that one can paint forever.
And finally, when the day ends and as the family gets together for some quality bonding time, each one has a story to narrate for the day. Interesting anecdotes, clean house, fresh clothes, great food and a tired child mark the dinner time. All made by a paid maid.
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