And after ‘Traffic Signal’, nothing really surprises me. But this weekend was an eye-opener to be honest. So here’s what happened…

There’s a guy who is supposed to be cleaning the car daily and once weekly from inside. He is a habitual bunker and after about four warnings over the last year, I finally decided I had had enough. Apparently, he hadn’t! And that counted more than what I thought!

So I called him over, paid him for 15 days of work and fired him. And appointed someone else. But our man wasn’t too happy with this. He went and spoke to the new recruit and told him that there would be ‘consequences’ if he cleaned my car. Sigh.

The new recruit refused to have anything to do with me or the car. He is not yet part of the cartel, I later found out and is considered and outsider by the controlling party! So I track down the fired employee and ask him the deal. “Don’t hire him. Hire anyone else. He charges less. I brought him so many clients and he is now stealing my client. Gaddar!,” said fired man. WHAT?!?

So now I was unclear whether this was a loyalty issue (among themselves) or a money issue. Interestingly, I was yet to discuss money with the new chap.

As things panned out, I re-hired the old one, had a good firm chat with him and am really hoping he is more regular.

Mind you, I remain baffled as ever about how he got me to revert my decision. Incidentally, our cook didn’t like when we told her the rotis weren’t good. She stopped coming effective Saturday. I don’t know what to do now!

In Mumbai, I never had this problem. For one, the car cleaners were much cheaper and more regular, punctual, better… I did have an irregular chap in Bangalore, though… but nowhere as bad as this!