I watched as my wife trudged across the living room with a bucket of clothes to be washed. I watched again as my younger daughter also trudged across with a bucket of water to water the plants. “Hey,” I shouted, putting down my newspaper. “What’s happened to our maid?”

“She left,” said my wife, bitterly.

“Left?” I asked, “but she was here just yesterday.”

“She left because she couldn’t watch TV!” wept the wife spilling some water on me purposely, then glaring at me.

“What d’you mean?” I asked angrily. “I’ve always seen her watching TV, morning, noon and night, that’s all she did, and now you say she left because of that? And why are you angry with me?”

“Yesterday she wanted to watch the Hindi version of the Bold and the Beautiful” cried the wife,” and you came home early, and she had to leave our bedroom.”

“Of course,” I said, “I didn’t want her in the bedroom, along with me. What would the neighbours think? I told her to watch the movie in the sitting room.”

“She said she liked watching the movies in the bedroom,” wept the wife.

“What!” I shouted, “Next she would have wanted my rocking chair, and my morning newspapers.”

“I knew you were an inconsiderate man,” whispered my wife, “now we have lost a good maid, it is like losing a member of the family.”

I watched my wife as she trudged across the room with a broom in her hand. I watched my oldest daughter walk behind with a dusting cloth. I saw my younger daughter looking at me as if I was some kind of a monster.

“So,” I continued, in no mood now to read my newspapers, “has she got another job?”

“Yes,” said my wife, “she has.”

“And who is she working for?” I asked.

“For the Kapoor family!”

“But they have only a one room kitchen!” I exclaimed, “how is our maid, I’m sorry our former maid, going to see her T.V. shows without being disturbed?”

“They have made an arrangement,” said my wife. “Mr. Kapoor has agreed to sleep on the terrace during the nights, so the maid can watch late night movies!”

I watched as my wife and two daughters walked with buckets in their hands and anger on their faces and hastily decided there was something I had to learn from Mr.Kapoor on the terrace!

Even as you chuckle at this rather ridiculous story of mine, do remember that as we move through our professional and personal lives, especially when we get older, that priorities change, and if we don’t learn to adjust with those situations, we may land up being an expendable commodity in our own home or office.

So maybe we need to all learn something from Mr Kapoor on the terrace..!

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