Human beings are bound in all types of love and hate relationships on a personal scale and national and international on a larger scale. The beauty of humanity lies in the way we interact with each other. From times immemorial, family unit has been the most discussed institution. Stories, epics, historical events, researches, movies, and plays have been known to wind around it. Family bonds are particularly significant as they link many people in one chain creating a clan where they share joy, sorrows, life’s ups and downs and many other things. The thought of a family brings to mind a home and what is known as a household. Now, where there is a household, there would be a need to eat, clothe, sleep, study, entertain which naturally envisages a lot of work such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping for groceries, maintenance of home and appliances. In fact, compared to a 9 to 5 employment, the work at home means 24/7 duty hours all around the year with limited chances of vacations or holidays. It isn’t surprising that a large number of Pakistanis are forced into labour intensive or menial jobs. Most people consider work that does not entail sitting in an air-conditioned, hi-fi office to be beneath them “Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition,” wrote Simone de Beauvoir, in The Second Sex, published in 1949. “The clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.” In most South Asian households, the women usually end up doing most of the work. Washing dishes that would be dirtied again after the next meal, vacuuming the carpets that will have dirt the very next day, dusting the furniture where dust is bound to settle soon after, making the beds that would be spoiled the very same night, picking up children’s scattered books and toys only to find them in the same position after some time, are some of the chores which never seem to end. Whether she is a working woman with a five-figure salary or an ordinary housewife, these tasks inadvertently fall on her shoulders no matter how co-operative her male partner or other family members maybe. It has been argued that these are unpaid chores that do not account in any nation’s gross domestic product therefore, do not appeal to the male population in particular. Nevertheless, it is an undeniable fact that housework is an integral part of our daily lives. Compared to a disheveled and chaotic home, returning to a clean, aromatic, and well-organized one has an immensely soothing effect on the weary worker. The ideal home is every person’s wish which can be fulfilled but with tremendous efforts by home-makers either themselves or through acquired domestic help. With soaring levels of population and illiteracy in Pakistan, it is not surprising that a large number of persons are forced into labour intensive or menial jobs. Most people consider work that does not entail sitting in an air-conditioned, hi-fi office to below their self-worth. Dignity of labour sounds good in words but we have yet to appreciate it in more practical terms evidenced by the example of one of my students undergoing federal government specialized training.He expressed his indignation at the academy’s sweeper found scrubbing the floors in a three-piece suit.Instead of applauding him for taking pride in his job, he sneered at him for degrading the elite’s attire. Considering this situation, it is indisputable that although our desperation for domestic help cannot be understated, our relationship with the employee has a big question mark.While we cannot help requiring their presence with gratitude, the element of respect for them appears to be missing becoming a love-hate relationship. Having domestic servants is not just necessary but is also a sign of affluence. While average middle class families hire one maid, those at the upper echelons have a retinue of servants. Historically, in the Sub-continent, even in those households where housewives performed all the chores, toilets were usually cleaned by a special class of persons, the Shudraor the untouchable son the lowest rung of the notorious four-tier caste system. Even today, in Pakistan people employ someone, usually women, for cleaning and mopping the house. They are popularly known as ‘massis’ without whom our ‘survival would be at stake’ as we are becoming addicted to them. The day they do not show up, withdrawal symptoms are clearly discernible in the household. Considering that she takes up a good chunk of the time of our lives, this maassi appears to be a very important person, more important than any other individual. A mood of irritability prevails over the members who can be found roaming around grumbling and muttering under their breath for not finding clean and ironed clothes, meals in time, messed up house and general atmosphere of untidiness. However, the person most affected is always the housewife for whom, coming to terms with this situation is perhaps most difficult. Housewives running their domestic affairs are quite obsessed by the maassi syndrome. Conversations with family and friends at home or in kitty parties usually revolve around her being present, absent, available, competent, lazy, demanding, too young, too old, too coquettish, too stubborn, too difficult, at times very nice, prone to gossip, thief, honest, sensible, foolish and the list is endless. Considering that she takes up a good chunk of the time of our lives, this maassi appears to be a very important person, more important than any other individual. The West has to some extent overcome this problem by reducing the size of their houses and squeezing people in claustrophobic accommodations with shared bathroom facility.All people, other than infants and children, living in the household usually cater for their own needs like vacuuming, washing dishes and laundry or even taking care of babies.Guests are rarely entertained at home and relatives get together mostly on special occasions. Affording services of a maid even twice a week is not everyone’s forte. Besides, these maids are mostly educated and professionally trained, who expect to be treated with dignity and equality. On the other hand,in South Asian patriarchal society, the idea of men, especially the income earner, doing household chores or changing a baby’s diaper is simply unthinkable and a well-guarded taboo. With all these characteristics, importance of the maassi cannot be undermined and our women cannot be blamed for making the maassi ‘a hot-bed of tropical intensity’ (with due apology to Thomas Hardy). The writer, lawyer and author, is anAdjunct Faculty at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Published in Daily Times, July 21st 2018.