Who is to be blamed?

“Don’t do it like this! Cultivate some good habits". This is probably what you would have heard if you have spent about 2 hours with Mrs. Kalpana Rajveer Singh. She has her own set of ideologies when it comes to almost anything. She is among the first generation independent women. She is a typical middleclass lady who at her bottom of her heart wants to be counted amongst the high society ladies. She has a husband whose only concern is to drink, laugh and eat. He says that he has done his duties by educating Akash and marrying off Abhilasha.

In a nutshell Kalpana is not an ideal family women though she might be a very good at her job. Her lifeline is Kantaben. Kantaben, Kanti for short is a very lazy employee. She came to Mumbai with her silver screen dreams but ended up marrying a soon to be jailed gangster. She is the domestic help of the Singh household. She does this supposedly menial job only because Mrs.Singh pays her handsomely, about Rs.1000 a month. But Kanti had a bad habit of bunking work. She would bunk atleast 6-7 times in a month. Those days would be an absolute horror for Mrs.Singh.

In the month of May, Mr & Mrs.Singh had gone to their native place on a vacation for 15 days. Kanti too got a break from her daily chorus but at the same time she did not compromise on her salary. But unfortunately two days after the Singhs came back, Kanti again bunked work. Little Shilpa barely 11 years old had come to the Singh’s place to tell that her mother wont be able to come to work today. Mrs.Singh was so pissed off that she made Shilpa wash the utensils and clean the household. The little soul could not bear the pain and eventually cried out when she was made to clean the dirty toilets. On seeing the tears Mrs.Singh blamed them on her mother. Her argument was that even after getting an extended holiday Kanti had bunked for apparently no reason. So someone has to pay for it.

Who is the actual culprit? Who is the cause for Shilpa’s tears? Is it Kanti, her mother or Mrs.Singh the “logical, emotionless forward thinking woman of India”. Or is it the little child's own fate that is to be blamed?