I am the mother of an 18-month old baby. On December 27, I called in packers and movers to shift from Kandivali to Ghatkopar (in Mumbai).
The first thing we did when the packers entered was to tell them to not touch the baby bottles. The packing started and suddenly I noticed to my horror that all my baby’s bottles and accessories (the nipples, and straws which actually go in her mouth) were thrown in a carton which had kitchen appliances. There were nipples inside toasters and heaters. I had to take them all out and they had to be re-washed and re-sterilised. I shouted back saying, “you did the mistake, you pay for it.”
The concerned person came, took a bottle, put the brush on it and then threw the brush, swung his hands in front of my face and left saying “ye mera kaam nahi hai”. When I resisted, they openly threatened us saying we will leave all our work and walk off. Given that we had to vacate the house that day under any cost, my husband had to apologise to them to continue working. For the next 2 hours, while I washed bottles, they continued to sneer and pass comments about me. Finally, I could not take it anymore and went away from the house to complain to their call centre.
The manager called the supervisor, who then came to my husband, took him to a room and said, if he doesn’t control his wife, he will take matters into his hands. The way things are in India, my husband, for the safety of me and my daughter, refused to carry forward the complaint. I remained inside a room with my daughter while the rest of the packing happened, clearly overhearing them saying ‘inko to batayenge’ (We’ll show her)’.
The next day the consignment reached my new house. They refused to unpack most of the stuff, on showing them, that things were missing, the response was “kidhar to bhi hoga, khoj lena (It’ll be around, look for it)”. I told my husband that I didn’t want to sign their delivery slip, but after what had happened the day before, he was averse to taking any risks.
Now comes to what all they further did: They did not put corners on my fridge leading to the entire inside being dented. They put colour all over my clothes carton. They put the bathroom plunger in between my baby’s clothes. They opened dabbas of liquid food and put it all over my crockery. They put wooden boxes on uncovered glass. My daughter had coloured her first Christmas tree – again something we told them not to touch, and they tore it in half and stuffed it into a shoe.
Upon complaining to their office, the response was, “You signed the sheet we will not do anything now.”
Why was all this done? In today’s times, we still live in a country where despite being educated and independent, we become slaves to such attitude, all because we are scared. I admit to this, I am guilty as I am scared for my child’s and my own safety. I am scared of what any of them might do if I take action like going to the police. I am scared.
I will live through the financial and emotional loss. But I’m also scared of what if they do this with another person.