Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Blissful Sweeper

Most of us have a lot of complains in our life, and most often it is about the quality of work we do.
We crave for 'self-actualization'. It is true that creativity is an inherent potential of the brain and the need for intellectual satisfaction is a basic necessity. But then we go on about our work in a drag drag fashion sometimes wondering if we chose the wrong profession.

The below phenomenon which I see everyday really changed my view of life and work.
Hopefully my dear readers too will have a fresh new look.

Everyday as I go for my morning jog towards the Koramangala park, I see a section of the pavement being swept by a sweeper. He always sweeps only about 10-15 feet. I jog on the left side of the road and generally avoid him. The reason is I always hear him sing out aloud and took him to be insane. But I used to look casually towards his end and may be give him a glance of pity!!! Yesterday morning, I took the right side of the road, just for a change and I actually forgot I was heading headlong in the direction of the 'insane' sweeper!!!

And then I came right to the place where he sweeps. It was too late by the time I realized I had reached right in front of him. I expected a resounding trash from a broom from an insane sweeper. But I was astounded by what I saw.Here was a completely sane man, singing away to glory and sweeping each step with complete bliss. And I think I reached as he was just finishing the section. And when he completed the last stroke, he raised his arms with the broom in hand and claimed glory, as if he was Alexander who had just won a battle.

I will never forget this though, he then looked at me and gave me a beaming smile. I was reminded of a quote by Elizabeth Kubler Ross which says


“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”


I could definitely see the inner light beaming through his face. I felt ashamed for having thought of him as insane. Here was a saintly sweeper who though he swept just 10-15 feet was doing it blissfully everyday with complete enthusiasm, taking the concept of "work is worship" to a new high. I think he was experiencing "nirvana" in every sweep with no care for tomorrow but with full focus on "now".

This phenomenon shows how we keep complaining about life taking everything for granted and lead a drag-drag existence. The below snippet from lyrics of the title song of the movie
"Dhoom-2" says it all....

Dhoom again 'cos all I wanna do
is steal the show somehow
Dhoom again 'cos all i wanna say
is hey the time is now
let nothing get you down
go out and paint the town
let's shout break out
come on once again lets hear it
Dhoom machale....

So lets make every act in life an act of celebration, every work a worship...
Dhoom machale...dhoom machale dhoom.....

3 comments:

Ram Iyer said...

yogam asmi brahmahamasmi aham asmi brahmahamasmi, aham evam aham maam juhomi swaaha!

interesting way to depict that

Unknown said...

way to go karti etta....
dhoom machale... :)
lilly mol...

Das said...

Nice post man! It's quite sad to introspect how we take where we are at for granted. Altho Dhoom 2 for me reminded of the Oscar winning performance of Aishwarya Rai. I guess I'll just take the machale bit!