Your maid at the beauty parlour
Aspirational has now sported a new look. Literally. A number of house maids, in middle class areas are walking into trendy beauty parlours for shaping their eyebrows and painting their nails….
Liu’s is a parlour patronised by the creme de la creme. Not actually snooty, but it is where the old money comes to tone up, snazz up and all the things that money can cream over.
And that is where Sundari (name changed on request) barged in one morning and demaded that her eyebrows be attended to. For a mini-second there was silence, and clearly the beauticians did not know how to react.. Quite likely Sundari was nervous as well. I mean why else would she tell them, “Quick, my husband the driver of so–and –so ( a famous musician) is waiting downstairs,” she said, loudly.
And she got service, promptly. She left, quite satisifed with their service. And sent her friend and neighbour who landed up half an hour later. This one refused to give her name, so let’s call her Mala, was less sure of herself. She stood around, after asking for a particluar beauty attendant. The latter hid herself in one of the cubicles, and finally, when other patrons got restive, a trainee attended to her eyebrows. At the billing counter Mala bargained and brought the price down by Rs 5. That had the other patrons sitting up, and giving her a respectful eye. Money, after all , is money.
The minute Mala left you can guess wat the buzz was about. When it emerged that a number of girls and newly wedded girls from nearby tenements were making a bee line for the parlours, in many localities,many women did not know how to take it. Should they get aspirational and patronise `their’ parlours, a lady demanded, while her feet were getting pedicured.An old Chettiar lady, who had opted for hot oil massage cackled and said, “Now, they will want time out for parlour visits each time my daughter-in-law throws a party at home. I wouild love to watch the fun.”
However, a young wife, who turned down an offer to feature her lush hair in a product brochure had the best take on the entire issue. “I guess Chennai is obviously turning aspirational. If we guys are eyeing apartments priced at Rs 14,000 a sq ft, these servants will want to appear as if they have moved up in their jobs, and so they try to ape our external gloss. Who knows? My driver might turn up in a Peter England shirt for work tomorrow. And I would say, good for him.” Not many agreed with her.
But I know one thing for sure. The Tamil papers and magazines which used to run jokes (sic) on the man of the house lusitn after the maid will now have a fiedl day lampooning the `trend’.
When gas cylinders boys and temple flower shop ladies own a mobile phone, you driver ending up in peter england wouldn’t surprise me…and there is always Saravana stores!
I too have the same attitude like the young lady who said about peter england ….. It’s quite normal to move up the social ladder.
It also gives a decent look to the work force around. Also it stops us yanking about “my stay at US” etc and not following some good vibes from the west selectively. U notice these especially badly treated domestice helps at these ‘snooty’ households ……
Females are more beauty conscious. However, this trend is now catching on slowly among males too, though on a very small scale.
GO MAIDS!!!
Nice blog and a real good fun read.
From a second perpective though are we really stereo typing here as to who is supposed to do what and what not? I mean if you got the buck on your wallet you got all the rights to look like shreya or riya sen. Who cares what your profession is and where you come from?
Forget the labour class, does make-up do anything even to Chennai’s so called elite? Chennai has light-years to go before it can catch up with Mumbai or Bangalore.
Hey Bheema sorry Bhama ,
Enna athule sovkiyama? Ennada chellam evolo naal than athule illathavaa ellam chumma mudindu irukanumnu nenachadi abistu. athu eppadi evolo thimiru iruntha “My driver might turn up in a Peter England shirt for work tomorrow” Endi chellam driverna unaku sallam pondunte irukunuma? I am really sorry if you are feeling insecured about ur athu karar, after reading some crappy –
“Tamil papers and magazines which run jokes (sic) on the man of the house lusitn after the maid.”
Hahaha i guess you are one fat women who can’t impress anyone even after repeated makeovers at ur Parlour.
Please don’t suppress the downtrodden. If they are not there in your place your pot will stink, your clothes will be stinking and ur whole house will be unclean just like you are in your heart calling them servants. “If we guys are eyeing apartments priced at Rs 14,000 a sq ft, these servants will want to appear as if they have moved up in their jobs”
can’t the so called servants move up in their life or can’t they make an attempt to do so or appear as if they have moved up in their jobs? What Logic Bheema gal, fat asses like you are the reason India Sucks!
Why Bhama it can’t be a scheduled caste or tribe or OBC who can opt for an oil massage and cakle and say “I have equal rights in this country where women like Bheema won’t supress me and i can be what i want to do what i want to and have respect for whatever work that i do and not sell my soul to be a prostitute or some one close to that like Bhama”
bhama u said -“An old Chettiar lady, who had opted for hot oil massage cackled and said”
How do you reconize Chettiar lady, do they have a tatoo under their armpits or somewhere else like you which you reveal in the parlour you go to.
And Dilip ur post steoreotyping brahmins- sucks man. if you really wanna say some thing say explicitly instead of circumloculating you peudo glibtlker!
Why is the author compartmentalising people? is this Blog for people like Bhama and Dilip and not for Chennai People? Whats wrong if folks go to beauty parlours? Whats with you and Chettiar women, is there a way to find a womens caste in a beauty parlour. Chennai sucks or people like Bhama suck? Bhama, can you please write a blog on the discos you go to and after the discos to guys bedrooms?????????? Wonder why people can’t point at themselves???? Hats off to Suzanne and Ihate…. Candid comments awesome!
Sorry to say but it is definitely not an impressive start…. I really hope that you are not an indifferent human being who thinks that you are great and blessed becoz you happened to end up with parents who are rich enough to afford you a rich husband who is in turn is rich enough to afford you trips to those parlours where such mind boggling philosophies are put forward!
It is really amazing that in our country there are people who really cannot appreciate the hard work of their fellow human beings and worst of all look down upon them……Hope and aspirations are rightful to every human being and mind it…if they are going to parlours, buying nice dresses and even bargaining for a lower price…that´s becoz that money is hard earned by them…..they deserve it and have every right to spend it as they want….
You are dependent on them for your daily life…for which you should be ashamed of…and you are paying them for it….just you are getting some thing and for that you are giving something….I don´t see anything else which should make you powerful over them (ofcourse apart from the fact that you happended to have lots of those promisory notes!)
Sorry if my comment hurts you but your post is really a sad one….esp. for all those people who dream of a country where all the human beings
are equal with equal opportunities and amenities of life!
I think all of you who have got all hot and bothered have misread the blog or is it me?! I felt after reading it that Bhama is just reporting something she observed. She has not been judgmental. Also, the word ‘servant’ was used only while quoting someone. Her term was ‘house maid’. Can you please tell me if there is a better word?
Aspiration turning to reality is only now hopefully becoming possible among many levels of our society thanks to the general economic growth seen in Chennai and all over the country. So you have to admit it is a new trend. I only hope that we continue to become a truly egalitarian society. I am sure that people with antiquated ideas are going to be in for a shock.
Hey AP,
As long as there are people like you trying to justify actions of people like Bhama things will remain the same in India. Tell me one thing how can Bhama know if a lady is a chettiar lady or not. Why does she want to write it here. Yeah I have misread the blog so have everyone so you got it right like Bhama who seems to us to be saying only Chettiar ladies and women of her kind (God Knows what it is) can go to Parlours. I condemn the way these blog writers are ignorantly writing about caste and glorifying casteism here. As for Dilip please ask your collegues whats cooking with them before you start sterotyping yourself.
So whats Bhamas reply,
I swear it will be like Dilip’s when everyone protested his Zune and 10 fraking things post of his! His next article had all possible abusive words about Indians and he had no remorse whatever. The people who write here are a bunch of idiots I guess!
Ennadi Bhama,
Rombo thulre. badava rascal pichuduven. If a old Chettiar women can go to the parlour why can’t a young Indian women go to the parlour? As long as you call the house maids servants, westerners will call people like you slaves! Think you moron and change for the betterment of the country.
Why don’t you stop reading “The Tamil papers and magazines which used to run jokes (sic) on the man of the house lusitn after the maid will now have a fiedl day lampooning the `trend’.”
Please keep your bohemian ideas to elsewhere and its evident you are scared if ur athukaror will go after ur maid (servant in your stupid language)
Ennadi Bhama,
Rombo thulre. badava rascal pichuduven. If a old Chettiar women can go to the parlour why can’t a young Indian women go to the parlour? As long as you call the house maids servants, westerners will call people like you slaves! Think you moron and change for the betterment of the country.
Why don’t you stop reading “The Tamil papers and magazines which used to run jokes (sic) on the man of the house lusitn after the maid will now have a fiedl day lampooning the `trend’.”
Please keep your bohemian ideas to elsewhere and its evident you are scared if ur athukaror will go after ur maid (servant in your stupid language)
None of the authors at Metroblogging Chennai are interesting in responding to personal attacks. Please refrain from attacking authors and fellow commentators in a personal manner.
I also ask our readers to ignore these comments. It’s not Metroblogging policy to delete or edit comments. We request our readers in joining us in condemning the commentators who are misusing the comments section.
It really is a nice way for damage controlling -“None of the authors at Metroblogging Chennai are interesting in responding to personal attacks.” However when I read the blogs postedhere and by Dilip he addresses each and every line the reader has to comment on and takes it so personal that in his private blog he abuses the commentators and uses un-parlimentary words there about readers who post comments in here. If you have psychopath writers like these and try covering up the entire sham its just a matter of time before everyone knows. Nandu your code of conduct should apply to all dude! please refer to Dilips articles its full of utter nonsense he calls everyone by names and writes real abusive word in there, can you do something about that?????
I also urge our readers to ignore Nandu. It’s not his policy to post articles about chennai anymore. We request our readers in joining us in condemning the bloggers who are misusing the blog section to their whims and fantasies! Hehehehehe! Cheers!
While you folks battle it like theres no 2morrow out at the choice of words used by the authors, you have forgotten the snide remarks of Pritham ….Grow up machies…
I duuno what people like Preetam really want in life..Everyone to look like Mumbai guys and babes? Talk about variety !!! And why ? When the fuck are we in India going to stop this stupid Mumbai is better than Chennai than Bangi than Kolkota than Delhi bullshit? Grow up machies…
so called elite? So who is calling them/ You? me? themselves? I bet people like Pritham have these stock lines stored in Word or Notepad, pick at random a few blogs a day and copy/paste such shit and vanish. And dont leave a link to their webspaces (that is if they have any) for you to judge if they are preach what they talk or vice-versa. What a bummer trip…Grow up machies…
In short, most of you commenters who have forgotten the simple and enjoyable essence of ‘Blog’ging and make up for the absence of personal content by landing up in comment sections and leave back trash that makes Comment Spam look like Shakesperean Prose..Grow up machies…
donthecat:
well said. it took me a minute to understand that ‘machies’ is actually our own tamizh ‘machchi’. I thought you were using some fancy english slang.
So, can we call it a spelling mistake? :-)
machi, machie, matchi, machchi… depends on which part of Madras you come from.
I feel whatever the spelling, its not a Tamizh word… I would say its really Madras bashai actually :-)