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Our New Housemaid

by M.Mohankumar

M.Mohankumar’s poem is about a housemaid who throws in a word or two in English in between conversations, sometimes to unfortunately comical results.

I don’t mind the clutter and the clatter
that she creates as she goes about her job
in the kitchen; but what riles me is the chatter-
so meandering, dwelling mostly on TV serials
and movie stars and the gossips about them.
I’ve already told her off several times.

She has a way with words – but unrestrained
and lacking in refinement. She has studied,
she says, up to the S.S.L.C. (She says it
with a touch of pride. But I know promotion
is automatic these days up to that stage.)

Be that as it may. But it isn’t the gift of the gab
that you look for in a house maid. Sometimes
a glib tongue could prove to be bothersome…

And this maid goes one better. She edges in
a word or two of English, as she talks
(perhaps to impress), but often wrong words,
carelessly flung. And the effect is comical…

This morning, finding her unusually silent,
I asked her, “Why are you so glum, Kamala?”
She said, “Madam, he kidnapped me last night.”
I knew she didn’t mean what the words meant;
her penchant for the wrong word was at work.
“What do you mean, kidnapped?” I asked.
And she said, “Yes, Madam, that’s what he did,
that monster, my husband. He staggered in
and dragged me by the hair and beat me up
with a stick till it broke in his hand.”

Picture from https://www.flickr.com/photos/lakshmananand/

Mohankumar has published seven volumes of poetry in English. His poems have appeared in almost all reputed literary magazines in print in India. His first collection of short stories in English, ‘The Turning Point and Other Stories’ has been published by Authorspress, Delhi. Mohankumar retired as Chief secretary to Government of Kerala.
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