The stories of my cooks - by Swagata

The story of my cooks

I hired a cook (I will call him P) in August – a man in his mid-thirties. I found he was a very talented cook. He used to work as chef in clubs and in the Rajdhani Express, and other restaurants. Besides my house, he worked in 3 other houses, earnings about Rs. 10000 per month. He owned his own little house. So, his financial situation was not too bad. He had an 8 month old son, and his wife stayed home with the baby.

Besides being a good cook, he talked very sweet. He would tell me what high dreams he had for his son, how he would have just one child, and put all his efforts and resources in bringing him up. His son should go to college and be educated.

Both my sister-in-law (in whose house he worked too) and I were very impressed with him. Towards the end of his 2 months service, he started getting irregular and taking time off. Still, my sis-in-law and I were very sympathetic to his needs, since he was such a good cook. We figured if we supported him a little bit, he could really rise in life, given his talent. He could do catering in parties that provide good income. At the end of September, he asked that we pay his October’s salary in advance. My sis-in-law and I agreed. Since Durga Puja (an eventful Bengali festival) was coming up, we also gave extra bonus to buy a bicycle for himself, so he could bike to work, instead of walking.

He stopped coming to work from the very next day. And, he went missing for 3 days after that. His wife had no idea where he was. She cried and cried till her eyes were red and swollen. Her parents went to the nearby villages to look for him. His wife said there was no money in the house, no food; she did not know what to do. She also had no idea what his monthly income was.

After 3 days, P shows up in his house, without a penny in his pocket. Later we found out he had a drinking problem. He drank up all the money (close to $250) in 3 days. It was also discovered that he had a mistress on the side, and hold your breath, she was married too. My brother later discovered that his new bottle of Chivas Regal Whisky, that he had bought all the way from Europe and was saving it for a special occasion, was empty. And, this also is a common story I later heard from many – the male servant will drink up all your alcohol in the house and fill up the bottles with water!

My second cook
I don’t give up, do I? Well, these people come looking for work, and I figure why not? This time it is a woman. OK cook, nothing great, but she does a lot of the mundane work for me in the kitchen. She always seems so needy and so poor. I found out she has 9 children – she is a Muslim woman, and they do not believe in birth control. I asked her if she got herself operated on. She answered her husband died 4 years ago. He was an auto rickshaw driver. Worked one month, stayed home and lay in bed for the next 2 months, and so on. He had a terrible drinking problem, spent all his money on alcohol. When he would finish his money, he would try to take her earnings. In the process, a fight would ensue, and all neighbors would hear the screaming and yelling that went on.

I did not even bother to ask her how he died – she is better off without him.

I remember when I was growing up, the problems in the maids community was the same. An alcoholic husband, beating up the wife and taking her earnings, a house full of children. Self-inflicted poverty, it is called.

The wisdom here is if you want to help the poor people, never hand out money to the men folks – they will drink it all up. Best is to help the women, and feed and educate the children. The women too – someone who was helping pay her maid’s children’s tuition, would herself go to the school to pay. If she handed the tuition money to the maid, on the way to school, the maid would see something she wanted to buy, and would spend her children’s tuition money on that.

That is why they say – if you want to help, work at the grass roots.