Seen more of the world...

She's seen much more of the world than we have.

That's what my mother-in-law said about Mausi (which means "auntie"), the maid who cleans the common areas of our apartment building and Leena hires to clean our living room and balcony a few times a week.

We were complaining to Leena's mother about what a horrible, stupid, bitter old woman the maid is. How she never remembers simple things, like Leena's told her a million times by now not to knock on the door before 11am.

Mausi is basically stupid and incompetent and lies all the time. She's unreliable and incapable of doing the same job day-in, day-out without assistance. She gets confused about what bucket to use if they're stacked in a different order in the bathroom. And she can't open the sliding glass doors on her own, or even move the chairs away from the dining table and put them back in a neat order.

She used to work a 7 hour day at the apartment building and kept asking for a raise. But back then she was doing a bad job cleaning from about 9am to noon, then having lunch with other maids from nearby, then sleeping in our garage till 4pm and going home, and she skips many days because she's not well or relatives are sick or dying (I'd be more sympathetic, but honestly, I think she's lying more than her relatives are dying).

And no one ever stepped out of their apartments into the common areas and thought "wow, this place really shines."

There's some dirt spots that have been there for a long time, and I'm sure all they take is a bit of scrubbing, that she's not putting in. Not to mention when she's done cleaning for the day, she throws her own garbage all over the place.

I really don't think Mausi has seen more of the world than me, Leena or Leena's Mummy... We've all traveled, seen other parts of India, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and so forth.

What Mausi has seen more of, though, is a lot more of one itty-bitty, tiny, almost insignificant corner of the world.