A day in the life of a working lady

A day in the life of a working lady

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               My previous post  had a peep into a day in the life of a house wife.  Today  I am  taking  a look at a day  in the  life of a working woman. Women these days are working in Schools and Colleges as teachers, In Hospltals as Doctors and Nurses   and in Offices, Banks,Industrial Establishments  and Corporate Houses holding Secretarial or  Executive positions. It is generally seen that women work for  supplementing the family income.Working in an office and also maintaining the home (which in itself is a full time job) is very taxing for the women. When she is pregnant she cannot afford to take rest. After child birth when she joins office and the child is too small, it is inevitable that either she extends her leave or requests some relatives to care for the baby.  At times it becomes  very tedious, specially when the children fall sick. Now a days many couples make a joint  decision to not to have any children and enjoy ilfe to the full. In later life the life becomes a vaccum  for them,but by then it is too late.

 I am here looking at a couple belonging to  middle income group.  Let us name this lady, Mamta. She is working in a senior position  in a  Government establishment and has two school going children. Theirs’ is nucleur family. Her office timings are from 9 am to 5.30pm.  She has no full time domestic  helper.  With this background  let us look at her daily schedule. She gets up at 5 o clock in the morning. Straight away she enters the kitchen. Prepares tea,pours it in a teapot . The tea tray with cups  and saucers, milk  for the kids and sugar is kept on the dining table. She calls Hubby and the kids to get up. She comes  back to the Kitchen.Keeps the vegetable on the gas in a pressue cooker and proceeds to collect water in  bottles. After all the bottles are filled  she prepares the chapattis. The clock shows 7.00.  She keeps the utensils in the sink and tidies the kitchen. Hubby and children  are still enjoying early morning slumber. They get up like a spring ,when they hear her second call. Addressing the children  she says,”finish your milk and keep the water bottles in the frig.” They obey their mom without  questioning.  The  dotty who is half  asleep  tries to carry five bottles  in one go.  All of a sudden  one bottle falls down and breaks. The girl starts weeping. Angrily Mamta comes out of the kitchen, Why “cant you carry  things carefully? I have to attend a meeting. Again I’ll be late.”Then she calls her hubby,”Why don’t you come and pack the tiffin boxes? He leaves the newspaper and comes out murmuring  something. She collects the broken glass pieces, brings the mop and dries the water. Now she takes her cup of tea.  Hubby has kept the tiffin boxes on the table. She grumbles and keeps the lunch boxes in the bags. Now enters the maid. Mamta shouts from her bedroom, “Your tea is on the table. Finish your work quickly .” Hubby has gone for bath:  The boy is ready but cant find his shoes. Mamta calls the maid and asks her to search  the shoes. She combs her daughter’s hair  murmuring  ‘hairs are so dirty. Why don’t you shampoo properly?” She bids bye to the children , giving last minute instructions, “Take care of your sister. Hold her hand. The school bus will be here any moment.” Then shouting at the maid, ”Is  it all done?  Leave immediately The rest can be done in the evening.”Mamta did not get time to have her bath. She washes her face and  is ready to leave.  A vehicle comes to plck her up but was not to be seen. She calls the driver ,said he would be there in two minutes.  She calls her husband  to come out fast. They locked the house and leave. She drops him at his office which is en route. She attended the meeting and reaches the office. It is a hectic day in the office.  She called the children to ask whether they had their meals.  She reaches home at 7.00 pm. She has severe headache. As she reached home she found both the kids in school uniform. She  lost her temper and  scolded them for not changing their dress.  She quickly freshened herself. She enters the kitchen to check whether the maid had cooked dinner. Sigh.  She prepares a cup of tea for herself. She enquires about the kids  school  and their assignment etc. She cuts vegetables for next day. Hubby has not yet arrived. She calls him. He informs he would be home in ten minutes. As soon as he arrives  she confronts him, “ Every day you are late. You have no sense of responsibility towards your family.” He tries to laugh  it away but she goes on and on.  Her son tells to calm down. Grumbling all the time she  lays the plates and dinner. The hubby tries to make the atmosphere  light. He  smilingly tells the children,”See how sweet is your mom.”  They start  laughing, she too joins them. She looks lovingly at hubby and blurts,”You naughty”

Note: We have seen both sides of the coin-- Veena and Mamta. Both are home makers . Whereas Veena is  more relaxed and serene ,  Mamta has to perform on two fronts. It is for the readers to decide who is better off, Veena or Mamta!!