Suresh was born to a typical middle-class Indian family and had an elder sister Varsha. When his dad, the sole breadwinner passed away when he was six (Varsha was 10), Kavitha, his mother had no idea how to raise them. Thankfully, an old friend mentioned about a gated community which was specifically for widow families. Kavitha was an expert in tailoring and this was what the landlady was looking for. She had her own garments company and she wanted more and more tailors. The salary was also low but since the rent was also kept to a minimum, it was perfect for Kavitha. They moved in and 12 years later, they were still living there. Varsha got an entry level BPO job after she completed College with very low scores. Thankfully, she was able to get day shifts.
The community had 12 apartments and they were all occupied by widow tailoring women. They all worked for the same landlady. The rent was low, the salary was low and there was hardly any maintenance workers. The women cleaned the whole block, tended the single garden, cleaned the small pool all by themselves. They all hoped that, when their kids turned 15+, they would get more help. Sadly, that did not happen. There were exactly 8 boys and 8 girls. Some, like Kavitha had a boy and a girl and others had a single boy/girl. The girls, naturally started helping out their mothers but the boys were naturally far too lazy. The mothers made a mistake and treated them with kid gloves. When the girls saw that the boys were being let off easy, they lost their motivation too. By the time the pandemic came in, they were all 18+ years old. Varsha was the oldest at 23 and was working in a BPO. Others were also either working or in College.
With the pandemic induced lockdown, the mothers had to make a choice. The landlady had to continue her business and she told the moms that they had to stay in the garments office to continue working. They had to stay full-time at the office and could come back home once a week based on the pandemic restrictions. If they left the job, they left the apartment as well. So, they had to move out from their apartments and move in to the garments office in which one floor was emptied to have beds. This was in the rental agreement which they renewed and agreed every year. So, the moms had to go and it would be up to their adult sons/daughters to take care of the apartments. However, the moms knew, from past experience, that they - especially the boys - would not do a good job and so, they came up with a solution.
They had all of them assemble in the garden. There were no chairs and one of the moms, named Rathna, who was the de facto leader spoke up.
"All right, we have an announcement." She talked about the moms moving out. The juniors already knew it. However, they never expected what would come next.
"This means, obviously, that you have to take care of the entire complex. All the houses, garden, pond, the garage etc has to be spotless. Then, on top of this, you need to be able to feed yourselves. There is no negotiation here. This needs to happen."
Suresh was keeping a straight face but it was hard not to feel apprehensive. It was not about the work. He was perhaps the only boy who could do all the above properly. Courtesy of his elder sister. She had no patience for any laziness or attitude from him. For the last four years, he had been going from school/Pre-uni to doing all the house chores while his mom and sis did the cooking. Varsha would then order him to follow her as she inspected his work. If she found anything less than satisfactory, she would make him do it again. He was terrified of Varsha. Actually, all the girls. They were far stronger than he was. However, Varsha was not a bully. As long as his work and studies were satisfactory, she never said even a word.
However, while he accepted this, he knew that the others wouldn't. He was already the "pussy" of the neighbourhood, according to the other boys. He didn't play with them as he had no time between his studies and chores. That made the rest of them tease him to no end. When one of them, Karan, had tried to rough him up once, Varsha had rescued him. Karan had been limping around for a week and didn't dare attack him physically. However, they called him all sorts of names and he was proud enough not to ask his sister to make them stop. Varsha also decided to not be too over-protective and this had emboldened Karan. His male ego slowly made his mind forget his earlier thrashing and convinced him it was a fluke. He was not scared of Varsha. And so, Suresh could figure out that today, he, Karan, would not accept things lying down and would be their downfall.
"So, two duties. Cooking and cleaning. The cooking alone is big enough that all other chores falls to the one who is not cooking. The girls have learnt at least the basics from us, so obviously, they will take that up while you boys would do the rest of the things. That means, waking up and cleaning the dishes, cleaning the house, cleaning the garden and the pond. The girls will help with the washing also."
Rathna stopped at this. She expected the boys to protest but they surprised her. They accepted it silently. Even Karan. Good boys! She thought internally and then the very next thought was, how come this is good when it is only the bare necessity? She continued.
"However, you boys have not given us the confidence that you will do a fine job. So, the girls will be in charge of you. Your task is not complete until they say it is complete and we expect full obedience there."
Rathna had carefully planned they keywords. "IN-charge", "obedience" it set off the male ego and Karan, as expected, flared up.
"I am not obeying any girl. I will do the job but not answer to any of these."
"These", Rathna replied. She turned around to look at Sita, Karan's mother who hung her head. Karan was a single son and she had fawned too much on him leading to this arrogant specimen in front of them. "The girls are THESE for you?"
Karan replied arrogantly and Rathna carefully led them to step two.