Friday, July 2, 2010

Lingamma the trusted maid!

Lingamma is our maid,never paid much attention to her.She works for Amma and is happy with the regular house work she does.I never noticed her that much initially.All I know is she was the face who kept our vessels,clothes and home clean.

Now when Amma and Nana(dad) had gone on a tour,she was here at home with me and that is when she started stealing.Me being I,never noticed anything till Amma came back and found out that most of the stuff like my sarees,artificial jewelery,few steel vessel and glasses and other things went missing.The worst part was that the maid went missing too.Nana and others wanted to lodge a complaint at the police station.However,Amma did not allow that and the matter was closed.

Now Amma did not want to complain to the cops for many reasons,one was the the things that were missing were not that important.Because if they were it would not have taken us a week to figure that they were missing.second,she said "she must have had a reason".I was quite surprised at Amma's reaction,but paid no heed or importance to the incident.

A few months ago Lingamma came back and fell at Amma's feet.She said she was sorry for what she did and wanted to join back.My mom and aunt promptly took her back and she has been working ever since.they did not ask her any questions and also told us not to ask her about the stolen goods incident!

yesterday,I was in the back yard to take the clothes out of the clothesline.It was raining and I did not want the clothes to get wet.Lingamma was there before me and took care of the clothes. I asked her to come inside the house and made tea for the two of us.While sitting and sipping chai and watching the rain,she told me that her husband was drinking more than usual and her elder son was mentally challenged and she took care of her family alone and started to talk about normal life.

Then she told me the day she stole things from our home,she was angry at herself for her husband beat her and she wanted to do something stupid.She then told me that she ran away to her village as she was scared that we will book a police complaint.It is only when she found out we did not,she came with the things and gave them back to Amma.Who in turn asked Lingamma to keep them for herself,as Amma did not need those things.

Amma apparently told her that she lost trust and was hurt that Lingamma did such a thing.So,Lingamma is now working hard to gain the trust back.

I figured she gained it back,i drank tea and dozed off and Lingamma was watching the house till Nana got back from work.

Yes,nothing went missing :)

7 comments:

  1. Can I say how happy this post made me feel. I can't say enough of the goodness and belief your Amma has. And I can't applaud Lingamma for having courage to come back and try to earn the lost trust again..

    Touchwood.

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  2. I am surprised that your mom's reaction, It would be really hard to trust a maid who steals from our house.

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  3. talking of stealing maids...only one incident comes to my mind. I was 18 years old, and this maid in Chennai stole my heart. She never gave it back. To top it, she quit coming ....and she had a pathetic excuse...was getting married.

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  4. sad sad sad thing happened to you :( :P

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  5. MFFS - :)

    Sushma - Mom is weird that way,goes with what heart says. :D

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  6. Hey...your Mom is above all human's no common human being like us posses this quality of forgiving..its really very rare..And Lingamma..salute to her courage..she decided to come back ! I feel maids in South India are much much better than any other parts in India :-) This is my very own experience ! Read it here,
    http://maverickshree.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/savithri/

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  7. Hey shree,I think it is all in matter of trust.I know sometimes it can be difficult trusting.however,it takes time and it comes naturally.also mom is the kind who never sees wring in people and sometime it can be pain in the wrong place and sometimes heaven :)

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