Maid’in TV show !

A maid comes to my house to help mum with the cleaning and mopping everyday. And while she is around, they keep chattering like there’s no tomorrow. I guess that’s inherent female nature. (No offence (: ). However it seemed different today. There was a serious note to their mindless chatter and gossip. I casually dropped a “What’s up?”. Mum then explained to me that she (the maid) bought a new Colour TV sometime last month. And it was damaged during one of the several nights of torrential thunderstorms we had last week.

The problem was that, the maid is illiterate. Even so, she had managed to call up the sales center. But they had fooled around with her, redirected her to someone else, who in turn had redirected to some *other* else and who finally gave her an all India hotline number of no one knows what. The point was she had spent a good amount of cash at the local PCO without actually reaching out to anyone. More amused than concerned I asked her if she had any *papers* regarding the purchase (read sales invoice and warranty card). She produced a crumpled bundle of *papers* from the inner folds of her saree. It’s actually very interesting the way they can store numerous items in the saree folds which virtually has no de facto storage pockets*. Necessity is the mother of invention. Anyways, coming back to the story. Thankfully within the crumpled bundle of *papers*. I managed to locate the invoice, or rather the soiled remains thereof. ^_^ 

I called up the sales center and told them about the nonfunctional TV, date of purchase, model number and other details. The person on the other side agreed to send a technician over immediately. He asked for an address. So, I asked her for an address. She said she didn’t have one. Instead she asked me to tell him to come to her slum and ask for her husband by name. He would then be redirected to her home. I was flabbergasted. Gathering my wits, I tried to explain these things don’t work like that. All this was becoming more and more of a comic spectacle since most of the non-telephonic conversation was taking place using sign language. Suddenly I found an address on the invoice, and without a second thought I read out the same on the phone. He asked to confirm if this was *the location* where the TV was located. I rolled my eyes and answered in the affirmative. Next, the person on the other side of the line, (who must be having a real good time listening to the confusion on this side of the line) asked me for a phone number. For a moment I seriously thought he was deliberately needling me by asking for a phone number after the address fiasco. When I mentioned there was no phone number,he promptly said that in that case he couldn’t help me. I just wanted to end the call ASAP, so I rattled off my landline number and slammed the phone.

After all that chaos I returned the invoice remnant back to her and asked her, whose address was it on the invoice. She had no idea. Later I came to know that her nephew had made the purchase and most probably the address was a fake. O_o So summing it all up, I had given a probably fake address and a wrong phone number to the technician. At this rate, the chances of her TV being repaired anytime before Christmas seem bleak.

……..

Even though the above situation seems something out of a sitcom, it actually underlines a very sensitive issue regarding our society. To put into simple words, our society is designed such that people are divided into water tight social strata and any attempt to move up the social ladder is faced with huge obstructions. Illiteracy and lack of awareness to name a few. Not to mention acute poverty and no legal coverage.

The labour class in the cities continues to grow in size, and along with them the number of slums, which have no official existence or address whatsoever. Another thing that has become indispensible in today’s world to move up in the society is a phone number. A phone number has become an integral part of one’s identity. A mere ration card is jut not enough. Maybe the government should distributing free SIM cards and handsets. O_o The idea might seem too rad initially, but think about it. How far would you (and your family go) without a phone number to quote as your own.

 

Later