It all began five years ago. I was 18 then and was studying Engineering. My parents worked in a cement company called PAC and they provided our family with residential quarters near their company. Almost all of the employees live in the quarters and it was sort of a gated community of PAC employees. There was a bazaar inside and there was little need for us to go outside the community. It was also aided by the fact that the community was far removed from the rest of the city. My college was in the city and I used to catch a bus for my journey.
One evening, during the early days of our moving into the quarters, two ladies came to our house. The ladies did not look like a match as one of them, Shilpa, wore an expenisve silk sari and looked radiant and classy whereas the other one wore a cheap cotton sari and looked to be following Shilpa in submission. Truth be told, the very sight of Shilpa roused deep respect for her in me and I stood there staring at Shilpa while my parents offered her to sit in the living room. She shot a glance at me which made me blush and I averted my gaze to Rani, her companion. She stood beside Shilpa’s chair and was looking at my parents and Shilpa talking.
My father started, “We should have come to you earlier. Never thought she would be so unreliable.”
Shilpa politely replied, “Not at all. I know that you believed so much in her. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you come to us?” she chuckled and continued, “but you know what, you shouldn’t pick on that girl. We all know this is a very remote place and… she lives in the slums, am I right?”
“Yes.”
“See! It is a very long journey for her to come every morning without fail. In fact, this is the reason why I set up this agency. When I first moved here, it was just horrible. I struggled a lot to find a maid but eventually settled for a live in maid. Unfortunately… Or fortunately for me,” she grinned, “most of the houses here are company quarters and they are not spacious enough to accommodate a maid. That is when I decided to start a maid agency. You don’t have to worry about anything. The onus is on me to provide you the best services.”
My mother enquired, “We also need a cook as I too work in the company. It would be better for us to hire a single person who knows how to cook instead of two.”
Shilpa exclaimed, “Oh, that’s great! Office couple! The company saved cost on one residential quarter!”, and burst out laughing along with my parents. Her voice and manner of speech everything impressed me but I stood there staring at the lady beside her while catching glimpses of Shilpa through the corner of my eye. For some reason, I found her as menacing as she was charming.
Shilpa patted Rani and continued, “Then, I have brought the right woman for you. Rani here, is an excellent cook and she has the experience of over a decade in being a housemaid.” Rani bowed to my parents while Shilpa continued, “Rani is also my favorite among all the girls because she’s been with me for a long time and I really trust her.”
Though she called Rani a girl, she was more of a woman about 40 years of age and possibly older than Shilpa. Rani looked humbled, patted on Shilpa’s shoulder and said, “Thank you very much, Ms. Shilpa.”
Shilpa smiled and suddenly said, turning to my parents, “Hey, why don’t we try Rani’s cooking now? Your son can show her the kitchen and meanwhile we can discuss the logistics.” She looked at me but I can’t bring myself to look at her beautiful face without blushing but then Rani too looked at me and gave me a sly smile. She might have thought that I was eyeing her and I was tensed knowing that.
My mother replied, “That is a very good idea. Please make some evening snacks, Rani. Pravin, show her the kitchen.”
I felt awkward walking ahead of Rani as I felt her gaze pierce my back and scrutinize every inch of my body. I leant against the kitchen entrance and being too embarrassed to make eye contact, I just showed her the way in. I was lost in my thoughts and embarrassments when I saw Rani’s feet stop in front of me. I looked up and saw that my face was in line with her breast and immediately raised my head to look at her face. She was leaning away from me in the narrow entrance and her face showed discomfort which was slowly turning into disgust. I quickly realized what was happening and straightened myself to get away from blocking the entrance. In the process, I leant forward, diving my face into her breasts. Immediately, I felt her hand violently pushing me on my head which made me fall. I looked up at her to see only disgust and anger in her face.
She started collecting all the ingredients near the stove and her meticulousness impressed me. She shouted the ingredients’ names and only the names and I would promptly reply where to find them. She was visibly angry and never once looked at my face while cooking. She was making pakora and the smell seemed nice. I wanted to use this to smooth talk her but I was not a man of words and thus ruined my chance.
After they were done, Rani served all of us pakora. Once back in the kitchen, I said to her, “Wow, Rani. They are very good. I think these are the best pakora I ever had.”
Rani curtly replied, “Thank you,” and left the kitchen. I was not very upset about the way I behaved with her but it sure was tough to see her daily without awkwardness. I waited for that awkwardness to disappear gradually but it never seemed to vanish. I wanted to meet Ms.Shilpa but that too never seemed to materialize.
Meanwhile, I came to know some very bizarre facts about the maid agency. I heard that its annual earnings including donations was even more than PAC’s. That our maids’ personal rooms are bigger than half of our quarters. The Agency building was a very large one but still I found this claim to be totally ridiculous. The other thing was that nobody had seen Ms.Shilpa other than the day they hired their maids! I was devastated. I wanted to go have a look inside the agency but the guard didn’t let me in. She said that entry was allowed only with prior appointments or through a maid’s recommendation. The shattering thing was that appointments for people being served by the agency could be made only by the maid working for them. I was utterly aghast. How come maids became so much important in this little community? How come the only way to meet my goddess, Shilpa, was through my ‘supposed’ rival, Rani?