A resident of Hyderabad recently took to Reddit to share a troubling experience involving his flatmates and their treatment of their house help. The post has sparked widespread discussion and garnered significant attention and numerous comments.
The Reddit user detailed how his flatmates, who are unable to speak Telugu, wished to dismiss their domestic worker solely because she could not communicate in Hindi. Despite the fact that the maid understood Hindi and the user was available to translate, the flatmates insisted on replacing her.
"I live in a 3BHK with two other flatmates. Both of them can't speak Telugu and moved into the flat two months ago. We have a Telugu-speaking maid who cleans exceptionally well, better than most maids in our area. She's been working in the flat for the past 1.5 years. Now, these guys want to replace her just because she can't speak Hindi, even though they can still communicate with her as she understands Hindi, and I am usually around to translate," the user wrote.
What happens in Bengaluru today will definitely go to Hyderabad tomorrow
byu/Aggravating_Nail4108 inBengaluru
The situation deeply affected the maid, who was in tears when the user explained the potential dismissal to her.
The post prompted a strong reaction from the Reddit community. One user expressed sympathy for the maid, criticising the flatmates' behaviour: "Poor woman, can't believe she's being treated like scum just because she speaks her own language in her own state. I mean it's totally believable WHO is treating her badly, this won't be the first time this happened and will never be the last by a LONG shot."
Another commenter shared a similar experience in the workplace, highlighting the prevalence of language bias: "This is happening with companies also. I myself have witnessed this first hand where a Hindi HR guy tampered with the hiring process so much. He literally rejected all local candidates with merit and accepted all illiterate Hindi candidates who had no relevant experience at all. I was the hiring manager hence took control of the process later on. But I was amazed to see the guts of this HR."
A third user, who speaks Hindi but lives with Telugu-speaking flatmates, described a harmonious relationship with their own maid: "I speak Hindi. Our maid speaks Telugu. She works really well. I never had a communication problem with her because my other two flatmates speak Telugu. The maid already knows what she has to do so, I don't really have to tell her anything. One time, I wanted something so I used Google translator. Your roommates are being cheap. Letting go of a poor maid just because of language is so wrong! She is a localite; we came from other states, we should be the one learning Telugu."
"Reading your other comment where you mentioned your roommates deducted some money for the maid not coming because of her being sick is so wrong! Your roommates don't have any empathy towards poor people," the user added.
Another user stated, "In the era of Internet and Google Translate, how is this even happening? When I visited Japan, I used Google translate to get around, as barely any people speak English there. Japanese people would even translate from Japanese to English to communicate back. These people are not even putting in any effort to use tools which can help you communicate, forget about learning a bit of the regional language."
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