Yesterday while I was bitching about my maid’s unprofessional behavior over a long distance call to my mom she offered me a nugget of truth: "Maids and governments are a necessary evil."

I sighed and immediately calmed down. Her statement made me realize that we Indians are so used to living within our comfort zones that the policy of accepting a known devil works well for us. We avert our eyes to the corruption and incompetence of the government and the lack of personal accountability most Indians have towards their jobs.

And, yet I have noticed that many Indians believe that if we treat our subordinates like pieces of crap they deliver best.

Yesterday I found myself eavesdropping on a conversation a foreman was having with a laborer at my neighbor's premises and my ears turned red.

The language the foreman used while bellowing at a laborer was so filthy that I wondered what his crime was and which turned out to be arriving at work roaring drunk. Standing next to my maid I asked her to translate since the abuses showered so liberally were in Tamil.

She preferred not to tell me and I wanted to know. She felt sympathetic towards the foreman and was quick to pass judgment. She was of the firm opinion that the fellow would have worked well if his pay was cut. Warnings never worked, she was quick to tell me and the foreman should have realized that tongue lashing never works on people.

I stared at her and felt like a fool. She had disappeared on me last month for ten days and I hadn’t cut her pay and again this month she disappeared for four days, then yesterday she went for lunch and didn’t turn up today till noon. And I merely told her that her behavior was unacceptable and then asked for my cup of tea.

Did she also think me to be a fool? Would a whole lot of tongue lashing have kept her in check? Was I being stupid by treating her like an equal? Was she taking advantage of my lazy dependency on her?

But at the same time I was willing to rock my boat. Today I looked at her in the eye and told her in my broken Tamil peppered liberally with English, that no one was indispensable. I could do without her, heck I had been taking care of my family on my own for five years in U.S and she was merely a comfort I had gotten used to.

We were conversing on the porch and my eyes fell at the foreman who was talking to the sober laborer. He had placed his hand on his shoulder and seemed to be explaining something to him earnestly. I deduced he was talking about work ethics in his own way, about becoming indispensable to his job.

It was then that it struck me. The foreman and I were similar in terms of being employers and wanted the same thing- our workers to have some inkling as to what work ethics meant.

And yet most of these people due to the abject misery of being poor cannot fathom it. I sighed and finally found myself agreeing at least partly with my mom . My maid is a necessary evil and I’m willing to bear her irregular work habits because of her harsh circumstances but again up to a certain limit.