It was morning, the morning she was to go on maid duty for the first time. She walked to the gate of Raheja Towers that had ten tall towers within its boundary. The towers were named after the names of flowers- Tulip, Rose, Lily, Lotus, Daisy etc. She signed on the maid register and showed her mom's I.D. card. The man in security booth allowed her in, but gave her a form to get signed by any one of the houses she worked in. He told her to get her picture next day so that they can make an id card. ID Card would allow her to work as a maid in their apartment complex and take up work in as many flats as she wanted.

             It was 5: 15 am. She decided to start with the penthouse she had keys to. The working ladies of two 2BHK apartments preferred timings between 6 am and 7 am. She had her physics lecture at eight in the morning. She was aiming finish her work around 7:15 am. The penthouse was in the building Rose. This building had only one apartment in a floor, and every apartment was a duplex. The building was farthest from the gate, at the end of the boundary, after the landscaped garden. The other two apartments she was supposed to go to work were in building Tulip and Lily, closer to gate.

             She walked into the lift of the building Rose, and pressed fifteen to reach the topmost duplex apartment which was like thirtieth floor if only the flats weren't duplex. She wondered what if the occupant of the house was at home and got angry on her for coming so early. She decided to take a chance. At the max, she will be scolded or told to come at another time. Her mother worked there between 9 am to 10 am and in that time she never saw anyone in the house. It had been only two months since her aayi started working in this flat. Her aayi's friend had handed her this house before she left to Jalgaon, and her aayi(mum) had no idea who lived in the flat. She was more than happy to get a house with less work and more salary that she didn't bother to inquire much about the owner. She never met the owner. Her friend left a note to inform the owner that he had a new maid in her place. She was given keys by owner's friend who showed her around the house and told her the work and discussed salary with her. Salary was found on the kitchen counter at the end of every month.

                She noticed the surveillance cameras on the floor and in the lift. She opened the door with the key she had. In the light of the corridor she saw the switch in foray of the dark house. She closed the door after turning on the light. She walked from the foray into a big beautiful living room with dining and open kitchen plan. The big wide island of kitchen separated it from the living. Every space looked spacious. The light brown color sofa sets with wooden side tables looked fresh and soothing with big coffee table made out of wood in the center. She could see the split AC on one wall.  The dining was a wooden table with  wood stumps  and bench to sit on . The wooden stairs from the living went to the floor above. She had hardly seen any houses from inside other than the ones in her slum. For a moment, she kept looking at how spacious and beautiful it looked.

                 She called out "Sahib" four times to no response. All her mom knew that the apartment belonged to some male singer/musician. That is what she was told by her friend. She concluded there was no one and decided to get acquainted with the layout of the house first. Other than living and dining with open kitchen, the ground floor had one common bathroom and one room. She opened the room of the door. It was a medium size room turned into a gym. It was equipped with a tread mill, elliptic trainer, gym ball, few dumb balls and a yoga mat.

                 Then, she went up the wooden stars that had a small lobby with three doors and a passage that ended on a door. She found that door locked. She walked back to lobby and opened the first door. It was a big room with musical instruments like piano, electric guitar, flute, drums, violin, synthesizer and many more, the names of which she didn't know. A computer table was against the wall opposite to door. It had a flat monitor on it. The windows of the room had the curtains on. Next room had a foray that lead into the room. The foray had a door to attached bathroom. This room was a media room with big screen and projector. It also had low lying queen bed to perhaps experience the movies in best way. One of the side tables had a laptop on it. She opened the last door on the floor and it too had a passage with door to bathroom inside the room. The small foray lead to a big room with a queen bed and bed side tables. There was another door on the wall opposite to the door. She opened the door and found herself walk into a beautiful terrace, not too big not too small. She saw the door that was closed from inside. Terrace could be accessed from two doors, one in the bedroom, and other at the end of short passage in the lobby.

                She walked back to the kitchen and did all the work told by her mom. She did dishes, sweeping, mopping, washing, dusting before going to work in other apartments. The door locked automatically when closed. The other two apartments had members of the house when she went. It took her forty five minutes to finish work in each 2BHK flat. She got the paper given to her by security guard signed by one of the ladies she worked for, and gave it at the gate while going out of the building. She was done by 7:30 am and reached her college in time for the lecture. She stick to the same routine even on Sundays and there was always no one in the penthouse.

               Every time she came to work in this penthouse, she couldn't stop wondering who lived there as she did her work. There were always just few plates, glasses and cooking pans in the sink. The stove and granite kitchen counter weren't sparkling clean, but it seemed someone cleaned them after cooking. The curtains were always closed in every room. She had seen the view from every window. They were all beautiful, but she loved being in terrace. When ever she swept that terrace, she loved how it overlooked this vast land with trees owned by government. People said nothing was ever going to come on that land. It was always going to remain green with trees. This terrace on thirtieth floor looked far away tall towers but nothing too close to invade it's privacy. She cleaned the ash trays in bedroom and music room everyday and found them filled with cigarette ash and buds everyday. She also collected glasses that smelt of alcohol to take to kitchen from rooms. She had seen a small bar in the dining with bottles of liquor of all kinds in it. Besides bed sheet and towel, there were only five to six clothes for hand wash everyday. It included a men's underwear. She hated how she had to wash someone's underwear. The already clean bathrooms were to be cleaned daily, and dust free furniture to be dusted. She emptied the waste paper bins in rooms in a big trash bag that she threw in the garbage system of the building on her way out. Her duties included making bed everyday with fresh sheet from the closet and wash the one she removed along with clothes in the laundry bin.

                    There weren't any pictures on walls anywhere in the house except one photo frame on the computer table in the music room. Many times, while sweeping that room and dusting that table, she looked at that picture in detail. It was a picture of a man with a young boy. The man was good looking, in his forties perhaps. The boy who looked like his son by face was very good looking too. He looked like in his late teens. She was sure only a man lived in the apartment. Closet had clothes and shoes of a man only.There was nothing related to a women in that house, not even a picture. She wondered if the man in forties lived there and his son studied somewhere else, may be abroad. One drawer of the computer table had a lock and she had checked opening it, and it was always locked. Completing all the work there took her an hour. Sometimes, she wondered how this man didn't fear any theft or care to know who worked in his house. May be he had some hidden cameras inside the house. Who knows? Anyways not like that there was any jewelry since it didn't seem there was any lady in that house. Even if it was, it would be in the locker. No one kept much money at home, they used credit cards everywhere. So, what could one possibly steal from there? Nothing. If one tried to take other things they would get caught at gate by the security.

                 One day before Diwali, she found twelve hundred rupees on the kitchen counter with a paper weight on it. It had a note that said "Payment for the month of October with Diwali bonus. Take next two days off". The note was in Hindi. She got one month salary as bonus in other two houses too. She got twenty thousand for October, not bad she thought. Diwali bonus kind of made up for the less number of houses she worked in. Diwali was okay as her aayi felt better and her cousins burst crackers.

              Twenty days into November, the feeling of how quiet this penthouse was, slowly started getting into her. She felt how it was still dark outside before the dawn and how she was all alone working in this house in that hour. It felt like no one lived there. Everything looked in place, as if no one touched anything in the living room or any other room. She didn't know why she even dusted this house. It seemed no one ever pulled those curtains to look out. There was hardly any dust anywhere. She could easily skip dusting and no one would even come to know. She became curious and asked the guard at the gate if he knew which musician lived in the top most duplex in Rose building. He might have seen him coming or going by car. He said they looked only for building's sticker on car windshield and allowed any car with it in. More than thousand people lived in that complex, people from entertainment industry and other sectors kept going in and out of the gate all night, how would he know who was who. Moreover he was new, so he had no idea.

That evening her mum was sitting out with Maasi when her sister Priya walked in. Raina was busy solving her math problems.

Priya: How is your work as a maid going? I am sure, you now know that it's not that bad.

Raina: It's not good either.

Priya: But you know Kaabil's trailer is too good.

Raina: Kaabil? She looked up at her.

Priya: Hrithik's new movie. It's releasing in January. Last time, you didn't accompany me to Mohenjodaro. This time you have to come with me. I know you also like him. She teased her.

Raina: There are so many posters of Hrithik in your room that anybody will start liking him. He was really good in Bang Bang.

Priya: I know you love that title song and dance. You can't stop dancing whenever that song plays. You almost know all his dance steps. You love Hrithik. Don't you?

Raina: All girls do. He is very handsome.

Priya: I know, why can't we girls get someone handsome like Hrithik. We always have to settle for someone like your liftman who earns well but isn't looking. Sorry to say that.

Raina: All girls dream of Hrithik, but there are hardly any men as good looking as him. So, how many can actually end up with one like him? 

Priya: He is available now.

Raina: You shouldn't even dream about him. He is so much older to you. Tiger Shroff will be better for you. He too has a good body like Hrithik. You have Tiger, I'll have Hrithik.

Priya: Hrithik isn't young for you either. Our mom's say he is like more suitable for them and not us. We girls keep drooling over oldies instead of young men.

Raina: Love doesn't see age. You know that 6 yr old girl Roopa in our slum, she says she will marry only Salman Khan.

They both laughed.

Raina: Are you studying or just watching romantic movies all the time?

Priya: I watched horror movie yesterday.

Raina: Horror?

Priya: Yes. In this movie, there is this ghost in this apartment. When someone comes to his house he hides inside soft toy or any artifact in his house and watches what people do. He is not visible to anyone, but what he does is visible. Then some new people move in his house he doesn't like. Then...

Raina: Stop it, there is nothing like ghost. I have a lot of math problems to solve. Can you please go now? Thank you.

                    Next morning when she went to work in the penthouse, she couldn't take out of her head what her little sister told her. She opened the door and it was so quiet like a silence that could kill. If anyone jumped from anywhere, it could give her a heart attack. She looked intently at  hardly any artifacts in the living for the possibility of ghost in them. She shrugged of the thought, kept the bag against wall in kitchen, and started doing the dishes. For some reason, she kept looking back every now and then. 'It can't be,' she thought. 'The bed in the bedroom was always crumpled. There were dishes in sink, only sometimes there weren't any. Damn! Is it possible that ghost was smoking, drinking, cooking and eating? It didn't look like he ever let the air come in,' she thought as she picked up the dried clothes from the rope in the balcony of living room that overlooked the beautiful landscaped garden. She came in and closed the door. She found herself shivering with the thought what if it was actually a ghost living in that house, since no one seemed to have seen the owner. What if his hand came from behind, grabbed her neck and killed her. Her mum will cry so much for her. She thought of quitting and going, then she thought of her IAS, and six thousand bucks every month. Damn! Even if it's a ghost , so what? He pays well.

               She remembered how Gandhi ji had to once travel through the forest in night. He was very very scared. So, he wrote lord "Rama" name in the palm of his both hands with his fingers, and closed it in a tight fist. He chanted "Rama, Rama" on his way through the forest and then he didn't fear anything and reached his home. She can't work with hands into fists, but she can chant "Rama, Rama" while working in this house and that will keep the ghost away. Ya, it seemed like a good plan. She chanted "Rama, Rama" as she went up the stairs to sweep the floor in his bedroom. The bed sheet was crumpled as if someone slept in it. The bin in his bedroom mostly always had this polythene with something wrapped in a newspaper. She took it out, and unwrapped it chanting "Rama, Rama", fearing ghost might appear like the one from Aladdin's lamp. And soon, instead of chanting "Rama, Rama", she was chanting "eew ,eew" as she looked at the three condoms. She immediately left the paper and it fell back in the polythene it was taken out from. 'Did she just see the semen's of a ghost in the condoms?' she thought.

            'Was ghost having sex? With whom? With himself? No, it can't be a ghost'. What if there were more than one ghost in the house? She asked to herself. " Oh no ," she cried. 'How can she make this mysterious owner appear?' she wondered. ''If she didn't come on work, he'll hire someone else in her place. That would be foolish. There must be some other way,'' she thought.

            Next day, before going to college she bought ten brooms from the super center that opened at 7 am in the morning. The store was just outside the building. She rushed back to the penthouse and kept the ten brooms on the kitchen floor, and the bill on the kitchen counter, She placed a paper weight on it. The paper weight along with some other stationary like sticky's, papers, pens etc. were in the kitchen drawer next to refrigerator. She had asked her mom and she had told her if something got over, she bought it with her money and kept it on kitchen counter with the bill. She almost always got her money the next day. That is how her friend also used to do.

            Raina was very eager to go to this penthouse next day. She opened the door, and rushed to the kitchen after throwing it to close behind. She didn't even remove her bag from her shoulders. She saw the money with a note written in Hindi on the counter. "Ab agle dus saal mujhse jhaadu nahin maangna (Now, don't ask me a for a broom for next ten years)," she read and laughed. She couldn't stop smiling while working that day. She decided to leave a note. 'Thank you for the money' she wrote in English and left it on kitchen counter before leaving. Next day she found that note crumpled in the kitchen bin, which me ant the mysterious owner of the house read it.

                A week later, she met her maasi on her way out of building. She asked her if she can lend her thousand bucks. She promised she will return her next day. She had thousand bucks herself. She went to the store and bought ten packets of surf excel. She walked back to building Rose. She kept the packets in a row on kitchen counter with the bill of two thousand twenty rupees. She couldn't wait for the next morning. She wondered if this mysterious man would finally appear, but how? He probably had no idea what time she came for work.

         Next morning when she rushed to building Rose through landscaped garden, hurriedly opened the door and ran to the kitchen counter with her bag on her back. She didn't care for the money. She immediately pulled the note from under it and read

'saara ghar surf excel se dhoti ho kya? ( Do you clean the whole house with surf excel?)

kapdon mein itne daag toh nahin hote.( My clothes don't have those many stains.)

agar na dhule toh bhi daag dhoondte reh jaaoge.( Even if not washed, you'll still not find any stain)

ab dus- dus laana kar do bas ( Now, stop getting ten ten items)

stock karne ki zaroorat  nahin ( There is no need to stock)

this is a house, not a warehouse ( This line was in English and written in English)

aage se write what you need (From now onward, write a note on what you want)

my cook will get it for you ( In English written in English)

chhutta apne paas rakho (Keep the change)

She counted the money, it was two thousand one hundred. She kept it in her wallet and took out eighty rupees change  from the wallet in her bag . She kept it on the kitchen counter with paper weight on it.

She was happy to know that there was also a cook working in this house. Thank God! This is not a haunted house and this is not a ghost story' she thought.