Kitchen conflict

As a domestic help, Rashid is perfection itself. A smiling youth of 28, he not just a good cook, but keeps the home immaculately clean, moving silently about like a shadow.

When he joined us, we kept quiet about it. But we did discuss where we should hide Rashid should my wife’s parents dropped in. I suggested that he could disguise himself behind wearing dark glasses, a false beard, and a hat.

My wife pointed out, however, that Rashid’s voice would be a dead giveaway. He can pretend to be deaf and dumb, I said. But my wife said a deaf and dumb domestic help in dark glasses, a false beard and a hat would look extremely suspicious.

Then fate took charge. A few months after Rashid joined, my wife’s cousin came for an overnight stay. He spotted Rashid and the cat was out of the bag. I told my wife it was better that her parents heard about Rashid from us rather than from him. She agreed and I phoned her father, an 83-year-old World War II warrior. ‘‘Huzoor,’’ I said, trying to sound as casual as I could.

‘‘Something unexpected has happened. Rashid came here today for a job and we’ve hired him.’’ ‘‘Oh,’’ said my father-in-law, his voice going cold. This was the last exchange I had with him. It took place two years ago.

A storm followed. My wife’s parents told her they wanted nothing to do with us. ‘‘People don’t steal a servant even from their neighbours, and you are our daughter,’’ they said. We said we hadn’t ‘‘stolen’’ Rashid. We had hired him six months after he left their employ. That didn’t pacify them. They felt they had lost face with their friends and relatives, because Rashid joining us showed them up as lousy employers.

News of the Rashid episode excited the larger family. Never had anyone heard of parents breaking off with a daughter over a servant. The episode was dissected as assiduously as experts on CNN had dissected Iraq. I was surprised to find many silently siding with my in-laws. It was believed that by hiring Rashid, we had betrayed family solidarity.

One aunt made a smart observation. She felt that my in-laws made a big mistake. Once Rashid joined us, they should have let it be known that it was they who had sent him to us. By acting aggrieved they had exposed their own poor profile as employers. News of Rashid spread far and wide. I went to Kochi and relatives of friends asked me about Rashid. ‘‘He left DCM for IBM,’’ I told them.