Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Of Neti

Iya…. Kenapa Neti dah balik kampong ? Sebab dia nak kawin.

Hmmm…. nak kata apa ?

Last 2 weeks, Kamil bawak dia pi FOMEMA for work visa renewal purpose. Dalam kereta she asked my husband, “buat medical ni untuk menyambung ya, Abah ?”

Udah.

Kamil quickly sms-ed me and when I got home, I have no choice but to ask her. She was in the Blue Room, tidying it up. Seeing her tidying an unused room already confirmed my worst fears that she was running away from a confrontation with me. Which means, she is going home.

With a heavy heart, aku tanya and dia jawab, “Iya kak, say kan nak married….”

Memang lah… aku ajar ko buat cream puffs lah, buat tarts lah, buat cupcakes lah because you did say you wanted to make them as your hantaran, as your bunga telur.

Aku paham she wants to get married. I want her to get married because she is only 1 younger than me. She wants children and as a mother and a woman (aku segan kekadang panggil diri aku yang masih tak mature ini woman… Ha ha…), I understand and respect that.

But…. “Awak kata kawinnya lambat lagi… Tahun 2011….”

“Iya… tapi ‘kawan’ saya itu mahu cepatkan… Bulan 5 ini dia mahu langsung…..”

I sighed. Pandai-pandai aje mamat ni, yek.

Nasib baik aku ni tak cepat melenting. I explained the 2 year contract and the money I spent getting her here, never deducting some of the cost from her salaries. Most people do kan, tak bayar gaji 3 bulan as a way of sama-sama bayar the enormous amount of money to get the the maid to work here. I didn’t because aku kesian nak potong gaji… Plus, I didn’t pay that much in terms of agent’s fees. So nak potong rasa macam kedekut al-berkira lah pulak…

But still, RM 3500 is a lot of money for her to just work for 1 year ! Maids usually work for minimum of 2.

Aku pujuk dia. Since the ‘kawan’ is a Red IC holder and working in Kajang, I told her to get married but continue working for me. Especially since I give her EVERY weekends off anyway, she can see her husband then. “Hari Jumaat saya pulang awak terus pergi pun tak apa Neti….” Plus she will only be doing this for 7 months, from May till December, then she can go.

Muka dia serba salah. And aku tahu, mesti laki tu tak setuju kan ? After awhile, she said, “Okaylah kak… Saya tak apa-apa…Cuma kalau boleh saya mahu pulang bulan 1 kerna mahu kenalkan dia sama mamak saya….”

“Neti… sejak Hari Raya saya suruh awak balik Neti, beraya di kampong… Raya Haji pun saya suruh balik… Setakat nak balik bulan 1 itu tak ada masalah…” Itu kata aku.

Ada aku lega ? Oh, tidak sekali-kali. Budaknya baik, kan. Dia ikut je cakap orang. Tapi betul ke dia okay ? Menangis ke dia tidur malam nanti ?

Oleh kerana itu sah-sah, malam aku yang tak boleh tidur. Pikir macam-macam.

Dibuatnya mamat tu tak mo tunggu and then cabut lari ngan cewek lain ? Alahai, kesian dia. Aku tak sampai hati pikir hal tu. I could also see that her heart is not in it anymore. And aku kesian. Siapa yang tak nak kawin ? Siapa yang tak nak berpasang-pasangan ? Ada family ?

Kesudahannya, aku rasa nak ketuk kepala cowok nya tu. Senang-senang aje cepatkan tarikh kawin… Aku belasah gak karang.

The next morning, she was her usual self. I expected gloomy silence but dia gelak-gelak dengan aku, cerita hal budak-budak. However I could see a shadow of unhappiness in her and her trying to be happy made me feel wretched.

I sat down with her after work and told her to go home. She was not shocked. She was sad in fact and termenung dia kejap. Then she apologized. But what can I say ? She did say though that her ‘kawan’ said kalau contract 2 tahun, ngak apa-apa…teruskan aja… Tapi well… she loves him and he loves her… what right do I have to stop them from being together ?

Other than that, aku takut gak kalau depa buat maksiat karang…. Hmm… aku idak le menuduh tapi ada ketakutan kalau ia berlaku, aku yang bertanggungjawab.

So she went home. Pokai aku bulan ni sebab aku bayar gaji kira 2 kali lah bulan ni. Gaji November and gaji December. Kamil bagi his share for half month only. Aku lak tak sampai hati pikir dia nak kawin, aku bagi my share in full plus tampung Kamil’s share so that she got full month, plus a small bonus because she had been good, this girl. She took really good care of the kids and the plants.

Ha ha…

Matilah pokok aku minah ni tak de.

Kamil predictably was quite upset. But then, nak diapakan. Nanti dia tengok aku ngan Kamil berdua kang, walaupun tengok tv or bersembang-sembang aje, pilu hatinya pulak… “Aahhh…. Bilakah akan dapat aku bersama-sama Mas Jaboy (bukan nama sebenar… aku tak tau nama dia….)….” Entahlah… aku memang tak sampai hati.

Oh dear…kena bayar to get new maid lagi… bayar immigration… FOMEMA… blah, blah, blah….

7 comments:

Ibu n Abah said...

Salam,
slalunya akak baca saja tapi hari ini ingin akak beritahu, dengan indon maid... kita tak boleh harapkan mereka tinggal selama yang kita mahu walaupun kita layan mereka baik-baik.. Mereka tetap bukan saudara kita dan mereka tidak mempunyai apa-apa ikatan yang membuatkan mereka ingin tetap setia dengan kita.
pengalaman akak juga terhadap maid ini, nak percaya cerita mereka pun kena berhati-hati.
Walaupun ada majikan yang berjaya mendapat maid yang dapat kerja kekal dengan mereka bertahun-tahun, tapi itu hanyalah satu dalam seribu..

Cik Puan Kamil said...

Oh yes kak... sesungguhnya betul apa yang akak cakap tu....

liadevega said...

u a very nice employer myra, i hope u will get a good maid too...

Norliana Abdul Rahman said...

gitu citernyer....

tak per la... at least balik pun cara baik..dari gaduh2 masam2 muka..

Cik Puan Kamil said...

Thanks Kamalia... most people cakap I bodoh instead of nice... Ha ha...

Konot... luarannya baik... tapi aku malam dia tak de meraung gak...

Sheik said...

aku pun nak cakap, hang sooo nice...hati itu lebih penting dari kontrak...dalam misteri reeki kehidupan manusia...jika dia tidak berkira dengan manusia maka tuhan akan berkali-kali tak berkira dengannnya...

cuma aku kesian kat abang jaboy hang...sapa nak tolong bini dia masak lepas ni...

jawapan: abang jaboy la!!! wakakaka

Cik Puan Kamil said...

Tiada Jaboy dalam hidup ku Ya Sheik... Aku sepuk hang satgi... I know where u live okeh...