15 June 2005

'Goosfraba, goosfraba...'

Friends have been kind. They’ve always enquired how we are coping with our maid Tantrum, or rather to be fair to her how she is coping with us! We’ve progressed since early days. I have now learnt to read into her facial expressions.

- a very broad grin means she’s totally misunderstood what you’re saying.
- a slight twitch of the lips indicates there’s a fifty-fifty chance that she may have understood what you are trying to convey.
- a totally blank look means there’s a 99% chance she’s got it right
- and swollen cheeks with pouting lips indicates that YOU have misunderstood her!!

I often wonder what Tantrum must be telling her family and friends about us when she gets back home. Won’t be surprised if she’s writing her very own series of postcards. I used all my dexterity to tell her that the ‘dal’ should be well blended and no separate grains should be visible – till we had our ‘channa’ and ‘rajma’ mashed, smashed, beaten, battered and blended into a thick puree. The only thing the poor things didn’t look was black and blue! To undo what took days to engrain was a near impossible task even at the risk of having Pratap fuming at the dining table spewing smoke and all set to take off into the Indonesian air space!

Tantrum is a smart cookie! She got her daughter to write a leave application for her in English when she wanted to take leave. The letter was brought to us along with the Sunday morning newspaper and bed tea. I was left with no option but to give in as I had no one to turn to, to write my response in Bahasa.

The maids here are obsessed with washing. Everything that comes in their way is scrubbed and cleaned. She had my blood pressure soaring when I saw her with the entire fan dismantled at her feet – dipping each working part into a soapy fluid.

‘Goosfraba, goosfraba… I chanted for what seemed like eternity when I learn’t that Tantrum had put our Jaipur quilts into the washing machine. It did not bother her that the cotton filling had all shifted to one side - and we were left covering ourselves with just the measly quilt cover.

‘Goosfraba’ incidentally is a word that Eskimo mothers make their children repeat to calm them down. It doesn’t always work though... in fact it has just the opposite effect on Pratap.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Reflections of a yogi and the dawning of self realisation.
Humans are self centred! they really are, selfish and self centred!

I have always been thinking of the effect Indonesia is having on our blood pressure, and how I am being pummelled and buffeted around by the forces beyond
my control... but it took Sangeeta's Buddha like ,yogic perspective to open my third eye and consider what the poor indonesians are facing when in contact with us!

I'm changing guys... watch out for the serene eyes ,calm countenance, and halo the next time you meet me. OHMMmmm! SHANTI, Shanti, shanti, God bless, peace brother and GOOSFRABA, GOOSfraba, goosfraba, goos............ (trailing into silence).

9:03 AM, June 17, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

its been a long time, was getting cold turkey without the regular postcards fix! indonesia for me is never going to be the same after your experiences or rather your recounting of them.

9:14 AM, June 17, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

interesting that you should put children, calm down and pratap in the single paragraph! wonder if it was freudian ;-)

10:16 AM, June 17, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is hilarious. Keep them coming.

10:53 AM, June 17, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rajasthani quilts, 'goosfraba', eskimos... this is coming from a tropical country!!?
Are you sure Indonesia is still where it was - up until the continental shift a.k.a the tsunami?

11:10 AM, June 17, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have a vacancy for an Indonesian maid. Experience in massaging is desirable.

11:20 AM, June 17, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We've been waiting with baited breath for the next installment and wondered about the sudden radio silence from this popular blogspot.

1:27 PM, June 17, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Roopa Iyer in response to Pratap's above comment:

Pratap... soch rahi hu... buddha roh rahe hongein... yeh bhari competition kaha se aya... but well hope you achieve nirvana... one of the effects being your blood pressure will stabilise.

6:09 PM, June 17, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pratap, lovely to read another one of the postcards.... must say Sangeeta has some great talent in writing !! She might want to consider some serious writing.

9:50 AM, June 20, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I havent recd any of your memos in a while so I guess u r busy. Keep in touch and dont stop yr memos whatever u do !!

10:03 AM, June 21, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This one was really good.
Does she really throw up a lot of tantrums?? :)

9:40 PM, June 26, 2005  

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