Cleanliness is next to Godliness

The place we stay is a small town.
The lane we stay has neat rows of converted Victorian houses, and a few B & Bs.
There is one huge parking space at one end of the row.

This lane runs parallel to the busy main road, which has a bank, a drugstore, 2 pound shops, 2 bakeries, a vegetable shop, Somerfields, Mac-D's, PizzaHut, 1 Lebanese and one 1 Chinese restaurant, a salsa dance class (yeah!) , 2 pubs, a few real estate offices,an ATM , a superstore - you get the picture? A real busy street, with all options for people of variety of age groups!

And here comes the link.
There is an old man. A hefty, 6 ft, 70 lb old man. With a green jacket - the ones that social volunteers wear here, with large specks, flannel pants, black boots, rubber gloves and a woollen cap. He carries a bottle of water, a few polythene covers and a stick - the ones with a clamp at one end, with which he can pick stuff off the road.
He is a rag picker. He does the work for himself. He takes it as a mission to keep the streets clean.

Morning, when we are rushing out of the house, in a hurry to reach the office, we see him in his gear, picking stuff off the road - cans, bottles, papers, leaves, covers - what ever can be picked up off the road to keep then clean.
If there is other stuff- like dog do, spilt liquids, dried food stuff - he squirts some water there, and wipes it off the road with some paper. He does the same work every day, without a word, without bothering about people around. He dosen't speak a word. He is totally absorbed in his work. He does it with such dedication !!!

During weekdays, we see him in the morning, without fail. Be it cold, be it snow, be it rain - he is there. He works on the weekends too! In fact - we see him on the roads more often during weekends - after all its more work on weekends!

In Maharashtra we had a great saint " Sant Gadgebaba " - who dedicated his life promoting cleanliness - he was a living example of the motto - Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
When ever I see the old man on the streets, carrying out his missionary work, I think of him as an english GadgeBaba.

Home Coming..

Sticking to the name of the blog - "its never too late" - to restart blogging! :)
With the Hindu new year , I am resuming my periodic blogging.

Am back from a long (and I wish I could say relaxing) vacation to India.
Its the second time that I went back to India from a foreign land.
But this time, the coordinates were changed.
Now I have two homes to return to. And two sets of relatives to courtesy-visit ;-) (Sigh!)
( People on relatively short and really long-awaited trips to homeland can easily relate to these "courtesy visits" ! )

When you are returning home, you are looking forward to spend quality time with your dear ones, and try to make up for the long long time that you'ev been away from them.

After getting over the jet lag, the long hours of travel fatigue, unpacking gifts, reshuffling the this-part-still-belongs-to-me wardrobe - you realise that almost 2-3 days of your precious vacation are over!
Then there are these really important things like bank visits, paper work, applications and blah blah which you wish weren't there. There go another day or two!

And then come those visits!
" Auntie Meena wants to meet you both, you never got to meet after your wedding..",
"Uncle Vijay would love if you can join them for dinner, you both weren't there for his son's thread ceremony...",
"Did you meet little Purva? She is already 4 months old - do go and say hie once! " ,
"Dadaji's brother constructed this new house rt? well, they have kept a family get-together cum house warming - you both should make a visit! "
"Cousin Shriya will sulk if you don't meet her inspite of being in town! - you missed her wedding!"
" Sujata auntie's mother passed away, you should go and meet her once.."

And there are many more celebrations, ceremonies, new arrivals, unfortunate departures you have missed over the year.
All these are your people - relatives, friends, loved ones. They have missed you in the times of their joy and sorrow, and want you to spend a few moments with them.

After all, this is what you have solely missed while being in a foreign land. Your people.

Then why, why do these visits seem like an obligation? Why are we reluctant to spare time for these?
Because these visits are not the same - had you not been outside. The time is short, you'ev lost touch, you take time to warm up to these people, you have this limited time in which you want to bring yourself as back to normal as possible. And you feel the time slipping away ..

What happened to the plans of having long, liesurely conversations with mom?
To the plans of spending at least one evening munching pizza while guzzling on some fizz and watching crappy movies with your siblings, long into the night, cracking jokes and having fun like the good old days?
What happened to the plan of going on a drive with dad , chatting about career moves and future plans, interspersed with crib sessions?
Of the plans to have a lazy sunday family lunch and the gup-shup that followed into the sleepy noon-nap?
Of plans of having one evening free to catch up with your gal-pals?

And then - you think, you think of the changed coordinates, the new relations, the time you'ev been away for - and all this makes sense.
You go through these visits and once you are back in the foreign land, you look back and feel glad you did! :)
And you do catch up with those plans - you help mom with cooking, and blabber along all the while - what if a few rotis are a shade too dark! ;-)
You take dad along for all those mundane bank trips, and catch up during the mandatory hour long "lunch breaks" in the bank ;-)
You tug along your kid bro and sis for shopping, and then spend the evening sampling pani-puris and chats, till your parents drive down to pick you up for the next visit ! :)))

And just when you think you have juggled it all - its time to go! With a heavy heart and lingering memories, you pack your bags and head towards the airport. Your cellphone keeps on buzzing till the last minute you board the plane.

Once inside, you switch off - switch off from the world around, and make a hurried trip down the memory lane, to ensure all that happened in this whirlwind home-coming is tucked away snugly in corners of your mind, to savour it later ... till the next trip back home.