While Unlock 1.0 is underway in India, and people are slowly returning back to work, there’s one thing most of us have realised: the value of our house helps, those who do our chores for us, from cleaning to cooking. But since the lockdown prohibited anyone from venturing out, people, including actors, were left to do all of that themselves.
Celebs confess that this period has made them respect their house helps even more. Kriti Kharbanda feels grateful that she has people to help her, whereas the situation wasn’t so some time back.
“I’ve never taken them for granted, for the simple reason that I didn’t have these luxuries in life before. When I came to Mumbai, I had an apartment and the rent was Rs 35,000. That was difficult, let alone having house help. Today, when I’m at a place where I have both, and I’m capable of doing my own stuff, I’ll never take them for granted. They’ve made my life easier,” says the 29-year-old.
She further adds it makes her happy that she’s able to thus support seven-eight families through this. “Three years ago, I wasn’t in a position to do it for myself. I feel I’ve grown,” says Kharbanda.
Echoing the sentiment is Sikandar Kher, who says there’s no question about him not valuing his house helps. “You don’t realise it until you don’t have it. It’s human tendency. There are also your loved ones around, you should never waste your time in telling them you love them, because one day when they won’t be around, you’ll miss it. That’s the crux of being a human. 101 percent, I value my house helps even more.”
Kirti Kulhari feels there are two sides to it. First is that people won’t nag their house helps for their work now. “The next time you tell your maid ‘aise karo, yeh nahi’ you’ll think twice before shouting or being rude. I truly appreciate the luxury you’re given in form of cooks and maids,” she says, adding that the second part is realising that she too, can manage work on her own.
“I’m getting that confidence of ‘why do I become so dependent?’. I’m capable of taking care of lot of things like most people do abroad. It’s just part of their culture,” says Kulhari, whose house helps still haven’t joined back as the society isn’t allowing so.
Actor Ranvir Shorey, who lives with his father, a cancer patient, says his helps haven’t been coming, so he and his father’s help had to divide responsibilities.
“I had separate maids for cooking and cleaning, they haven’t been coming, so my helper prepares dal-chawal, I make the non-vegetarian food. I also do the dishes and the toilet. One has a taste of what it feels like living in the United States, they do all this regularly, nobody complains. I’m not taking it badly, I don’t get affected by work or responsibilities. What does feel like a burden is lack of freedom and having a regular life,” says he.
