Since Beks started with her full time job like a month ago, and since I have been more or less unemployed except for short stretches, winding up things, I have taken over charge of the house. I have been getting used to the role, and studying what is required.
Management, like Maths and logic, is I feel a general discipline and you can use the same principles in most things you do. To be a good househusband or houseperson, is practically running a company. One has to think of inventory and purchases (of food items as well as soaps and stuff), production planning (what to cook? when to cook), supply chain management (washing clothes as soon as one set is dry and getting it ironed), cash flows (utility bills) and stuff. Luckily most of the strategic decisions are taken as a team when you're married, but the day to day stuff is all up to me.
I have to make sure that Beks doesn't run out of clothes or underwear, is fed (with a balanced diet if possible) and that everything runs smoothly. In India, a houseperson is also particularly concerned with Human Resource Development, teaching your maid to cook your favourite dishes, and mapping out weekly schedules of when the books need to be taken off the shelf and dusted and so on. One also has to choose between outsourcing (getting a cleaning agency, or giving clothes to the dhobi) vs doing it in-house.
Anyway, I'm coping with it and doing pretty well. However, making rubber flip flops were easier in a lot of ways, at least i didn't have to think of producing different colours every day or anything. And sometimes, getting an order to be supplied is easier than having to decide on what to cook everyday.
Now I'm home alone though, while Beks is with her parents in Chennai. When the roles of the houseperson was reversed, when Beks went on a trip, I would do everything else except make the bed. This was my primary task at the time (or atleast folding the sheets) and I used to use the "freedom" to leave the bed messed up, sometimes for up to a whole week till she got back. I think it was also a semi-masochistic tendency, since it made me miss her much more.
But now, I have imbibed the responsibility of overseeing the whole house, and taken ownership of the project. This is the first trip she's taken since she started working, and now everyday in the morning, the first thing I have to do is take off the pillows, fold the sheet and make the bed, tucking it in tightly, and that the designs of the bed sheet are aligned with the bed, just the way Beks has taught me to do it. I guess I'm becoming a better houseperson.
Management, like Maths and logic, is I feel a general discipline and you can use the same principles in most things you do. To be a good househusband or houseperson, is practically running a company. One has to think of inventory and purchases (of food items as well as soaps and stuff), production planning (what to cook? when to cook), supply chain management (washing clothes as soon as one set is dry and getting it ironed), cash flows (utility bills) and stuff. Luckily most of the strategic decisions are taken as a team when you're married, but the day to day stuff is all up to me.
I have to make sure that Beks doesn't run out of clothes or underwear, is fed (with a balanced diet if possible) and that everything runs smoothly. In India, a houseperson is also particularly concerned with Human Resource Development, teaching your maid to cook your favourite dishes, and mapping out weekly schedules of when the books need to be taken off the shelf and dusted and so on. One also has to choose between outsourcing (getting a cleaning agency, or giving clothes to the dhobi) vs doing it in-house.
Anyway, I'm coping with it and doing pretty well. However, making rubber flip flops were easier in a lot of ways, at least i didn't have to think of producing different colours every day or anything. And sometimes, getting an order to be supplied is easier than having to decide on what to cook everyday.
Now I'm home alone though, while Beks is with her parents in Chennai. When the roles of the houseperson was reversed, when Beks went on a trip, I would do everything else except make the bed. This was my primary task at the time (or atleast folding the sheets) and I used to use the "freedom" to leave the bed messed up, sometimes for up to a whole week till she got back. I think it was also a semi-masochistic tendency, since it made me miss her much more.
But now, I have imbibed the responsibility of overseeing the whole house, and taken ownership of the project. This is the first trip she's taken since she started working, and now everyday in the morning, the first thing I have to do is take off the pillows, fold the sheet and make the bed, tucking it in tightly, and that the designs of the bed sheet are aligned with the bed, just the way Beks has taught me to do it. I guess I'm becoming a better houseperson.
4 comments:
Humm ! I have done it while i worked in south mumbai lived in the northern most suburb and did all these. It does teach you a lot of management
whats the northern most suburb? like borivali? don't tell me you used to commute from virar or something...
Borivali - Churchgate ha ha ..
and yeah i could guest blog the only small glitch is rite now all is see is ESSAYS and more ESSAYS.
so glad for you. btw, maybe I should get beks to teach me to be a good 'houseperson'!
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