For your Hoarding pleasure!

“Madam!” screeched the maid.

I came running from my bedroom to find out what happened and saw the maid with a Bottle of toilet cleaner in her hand.

Seeing the panic on my face she giggled. The million scenarios which were fighting for space in my brain (from pigeon in the bathroom, to fire in the kitchen….) twirled and whirled and slowly settled down like a dying tornado. I looked at her enquiringly...

“Madam, Harpic over” she said, gleefully dangling the empty bottle in front of my face…

Over the years that I have employed maids, one common factor in all of them (race, colour, caste no bar!) is they are the happiest when something gets over and they would wait to pounce on me and underline my shoddy housekeeping!

Years back when I had just started my tryst with destiny, my first maid (her salary was the cost of a Cadbury’s chocolate now!) taught me a lot about housekeeping.

Lakshmi was a slim trim mother of two who would come for an hour every morning and fifteen minutes in the evening. She would sweep and swab the floors, clean the few dishes and the clothes every day. She gave continuous lecture about how to manage the house, the finance and the main thing- store keeping. Every month two days before the washing powder or the cleaning powder got over, she would warn me to get new supply. Those days money was tight and every rupee had to be counted and accounted for. A couple of times I had not bought the supplies because it was the end of the month. She would then start on a lecture of good housekeeping and how we must plan our resources. She was my first economics teacher!

Many maids have followed her but thanks to her I have never been caught unawares! When the supermarkets first invaded India, I went around with stars in my eyes! It was lovely to pile up my cart with all the stuff I wanted without waiting for the shopkeeper to serve me. I had choice of quantity, quality and price under my control (plus the attraction of selling goods below the MRP!) I had this little diary where I noted down all my expenses for the day and balanced it at the end of the day. (Now I do it on an Excel sheet- thanks to my husband!) Till today I have a column named JUNU where I place any amount that I cannot account for! This is very frequent!

But this was the beginning of a habit- that I always bought a little more than required so that I would never be caught empty handed by the maid! At first, it was just washing and cleaning stuff, but slowly as our financial comfort increased, I pushed it to all my monthly groceries and even spare clothes and continued to cosmetics and gifts! I started planning months in advance about what I would need after six months and bought them as if the super market or the store would move away soon. As the children came and grew another item was added to my list- stationary! The number of sketch pen sets, colour pencils, just pencils, chart papers and decorative glue paint and what not, piled up! Over ten years we moved from smaller to bigger houses and my fad for collecting things never diminished.

Of course I blamed everyone- the maids, the children, the husband, and the unexpected guests for my fetish. This hoarding paranoia grew on me like multiplying rabbits and before I knew it my house was always stuffed with everything in the world. Soon I started forgetting what I had and added on to it in my ignorance. I had forgotten one important lesson that Lakshmi had taught me that always keep an inventory of goods. Soon unopened cupboards started bursting at the seams.

Thankfully it was time for us to move and during packing many people benefited due to my hoarding! I swore I would never again suffer from over stocking.

The new clean house was a joy to manage and everything was hunky dory. Till my first visit to a metro hypermarket! Oh! the bargains, the variety and the colours all seduced me. In a trice my cart (which was double the size of the one in the small city I had come from!) was full and I needed another cart. I justified all the purchase by

“God!  You know I have saved five hundred today and I don’t need to shop for two months.”

 Next month I was in the shopper’s paradise saving more money and packing all the spare cupboards in the house with stuff I may not use for the next year or so!

So the saga continues- every time I move, I throw away stuff that I have bought because I am “Saving”, each time I swear I will not buy anything new (specially crockeries!). Each new house has at least two cupboards full of stuff I will not use for at least a year... Sometimes two years.

 My newly qualified doctor in the family was sipping cold coke and enjoying her last holidays when I realized that it was the last bottle in the house. I immediately and unconsciously rang up the Kirana (groceries) store and ordered two large bottles.

“Guests are coming over in the evening!” I justified my purchase to the questioning eyebrows of the Doctor!

She rang me up yesterday from her grandma’s house saying that hoarding was genetic as my mother also does the same thing!

Who can fight hereditary diseases?????

Let me wallow in pure unadulterated pleasure of hoarding!