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A cook in need....is a cook indeed

After the kitchen was set up, hiring a cook was always on our mind. We were forced to give it a serious thought to it towards the end of November when the guest house meal prices were exorbitantly raised by 60%, from Rs. 40/ meal to Rs. 64/meal. 3 engineering minds could not relate the inflation in Indian economy with the rate hike in the Guest House. For a bland meal, it was way overpriced. Better economic judgment landed us in the conclusion that a cook was the need of the hour.

But finding a cook was much more difficult that what we had anticipated. And those who were easy to find were either incompetent or expensive. The first person we thought of hiring desired a salary of Rs. 8000/ per month. Cooking for one time a day, this was way too expensive. Another person desired a salary of Rs. 8500/-. He boasted of his credential in running a mess for few software engineers in Bangalore. On negotiation he agreed to give us a discount of Rs. 500/ month, since he will be staying closer to his home. In addition to that, he needed a place to stay with his family and two children. Both were rejected. We then considered hiring, the office boy, but was rejected for his reputation of below par performance in previous cooking assignments. Poaching was tried. The mess manager in Guest House was persuaded to join us. We negotiated that since, the turnover of the guest house shall decrease and per meal cost will increase, there is a likelihood of cost cutting and he may be axed from the guest house. But he rejected our offer because he was too busy in his current job. Then, we considered three persons, who work in shifts in an institution in township. The idea was, since they work in shifts, they can prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner in their free time. Further they were staying in township, so commuting to-fro shall not be difficult. It was a win-win situation for both the parties. However, this option was not explored further, for reasons unmentionable here. 

By this time, few close friends were aware of our situation. The married ones have better knowledge of this type of domestic activities and we tried to use their contacts to help us find one cook. This of course was followed by a warning that a failure to find one will result in unannounced arrival at their homes during dinner time.

Since one of us intermittently boasts of his culinary skills, we (the rest two) offered him a part time job as cook. Our offer included and was limited to

Daily free meals
Free ride to office and back.
Uninterrupted access to the internet and TV round the clock.

Considering his education as a chemical engineer, he desired a salary at par with an IOC engineer. We argued that, the job profile requires certain skills, which his education as a Chemical Engineer hasn’t provided. He has no formal education / training in cooking and no previous experiences, except few experiments in Gujarat Refinery Hostel, which lands him in the pool of unskilled labour. Hence he should be paid accordingly i.e. Rs. 250/ 8 hrs. of labour which works out to be ~ Rs. 1500/ month. He further argued that, his education in chemical engineering will enable him to optimise the gas burner and his knowledge in Thermodynamics can be used to calculate the boiling point of water inside the pressure cooker using the Mollier Diagram. The negotiation was not concluded.


Finally one person working in a friend’s office agreed. He cooked for a day and left unannounced for reasons best known to him. Another person agreed to cook for us, just to help and not as a medium for some extra earning. Out of sheer respect for his education (he is a Diploma holder in Electrical Engineering), we were reluctant. He cooked for us for few days. Finally contacts of our married friend and the warning paid rich dividend when one of our friend arranged a cook (he cooks in the temple on Sankranti every month). Since he stays in township and earns few extra bucks here, it’s a win-win situation for both of us. I hope he continues.

rabindra
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Location: Paradip, Odisha, India

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