Elections have side-effects too!

Elections have side-effects too!
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 6
Believe it or not, but like everything, elections too have their side-effects! And you do not have to go far to seek it. Just ask the womenfolk in your neighbourhood, who in all probability, must have experienced it.
As electioneering gained momentum with each passing day, maids in the city preferred to relish the poll process instead of whiling away their time in mundane chores like washing utensils and clothes.
The maids, that quintesential part of the proletariat or the working class, so ardently wooed by every political party, preferred to enjoy the speeches of their leaders, taking unscheduled day offs at their place of work, leaving the housewives fuming.
Women, working as well as housewives, had been cursing the polls but in contrast, the maids enjoyed it and wanted the poll season to stretch as much as possible.
The reason: Political leaders engaged the maids to attend their political rallies to show off their strength. In lieu of bunking their regular jobs, the maids got much more than their regular salary.
“In this area, I have been working as a maid for the past two years and after performing all chores like sweeping and washing dishes at three houses, I earn Rs 800 every month. But ever since the election season started, I took a break of at least three days a week and joined the political rallies. In lieu of just a three-hour attendance, I got Rs 100 per day,” said Meena Rani, a maid working in Vishal Nagar.
A middle aged maid, Pooja Devi, working in Tagore Nagar, said, “The employers used to deduct about half of our salaries, which remained around Rs 150 per house per month. But by attending two political rallies at different places, I earned the same amount in just a day. So I wished the poll process never ended.”
But in contrast, the housewives narrated their own tales.
“I was really fed up with this election fever. I am suffering from knee pain due to which I had engaged a maid around a year back. Fascinated by the political rallies, she started going on frequent leaves. Irked, I sacked her a fortnight back, but could not find any other to replace her,” said Pratibha Rani, a housewife of Panchwati Nagar.
Prarthana, a working woman of Ganesha Basti, said, “I leave my house at 7.30 am but before that I prepare breakfast for the family and sweep the house. Even after being tired after returning home in the evening, I have no option but to do all the pending chores which earlier, my maid used to do.”
Cursing the polls, she said, “I pray that the elections should never come. One should just impose the leaders on us.”