My grandson (who is in his 20s) complained about how uninteresting my columns had become since I began to list down Tagalog words he couldn’t recognize. They came from your baul, he said, they’re musty!
Alila is a servant, later evolving into the more democratic katulong, ate, or the classier “maid.” Once I visited a gay friend whose also gay katulong opened the door, in a uniform and ruffled apron, who introduced herself proudly as “the maid.”
