Our Country

It was a bright and sunny day. White, fluffy, cotton like clouds drifted across the clear, blue sky. Its was just a perfect day where the sky will make you giddy and freshen you up for your daily routine. 

Suresh was a 9 to 5 corporate worker, he was in his late forties. He was returning from his first ever corporate night shift to home, actually he was an ex-army, because of health issues his retirement came earlier. Fortunately, he got this job from familial connection which he was not at all proud of. As an army it was like a sharp blow on his conscience but what will you when you're the sole feeder of family of ten.

He took bus from the office to reach his destination but today due to road repairing work going on he has to walk half the road. When he was just entering into the alley street, a cleaner when he was sweeping the street due to the breeze some of the garbage flew into him. Maybe due to tedious night shift or walking in bright sun, he was wholesome irritated and this event acted as fuel to the fire.

He lost his temper, he moved forward, held his backside of neck and started shouting on that cleaner," You maggot, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT SIN YOU HAVE DONE….DON'T YOU KNOW  HOW TO WORK….SUCH A NASTY BURDEN OF EARTH." The cleaner was flabbergasted by the reaction, he knew that he was in fault and the personel will be very angry but the reaction of this person scared him.

He started begging and crying hysterically saying that all of it was not his fault suddenly the wind came in and sir came in at the wrong time. This gave him more dissatisfaction that is making him more infuriated, he again yelled," NOW YOU NOBODY WILL TELL ME IT WAS MY FAULT, I'M SO RETARDED THAT I CAME AT WRONG TIME..HUH..YOU ARE JUST BURDEN TO THE ECONOMY, BECAUSE OF YOU MY COUNTRY CAN'T BE DEVELOPED, DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT A NUISANCE YOU ARE."

After this statement cleaner looked to him shockingly and said," Sir, maybe this mishap happened to you is partially my fault but this is also my country sir. Even though I don't contribute to the economy like other upper hierarchy people but the love of mine for the country is same as the soldiers who chooses to sacrifice themselves in the war. They clean the borders and we clean the streets, bins, also your houses, inside the borders. Its okay that you don't respect or berate people like me but I forbid you to question or berate my love for my country because I also have exact right to live here like you."

If we say Suresh was spellbound then we are definitely not wrong. The cleaner started rummaging his pockets in search of something & that something was a card. He held the card in front of Suresh and said," Sir, if you have any other complaints, please talk to the supervisor." Keeping the card on the sidewalk and resumed his work. Suresh called to him and said," Brother please forgive me for my harsh words, I am ashamed of my actions." The other personel didn't gave any response and kept working.

Seeing this Suresh wanted to walk away but he wanted to thank him for one more thing but was unable to find the accurate words & that's why unknowingly he stood there. After quite a time, when the cleaner saw that the other person is standing there, he went near him and said," Sir if you are going to stand here you are going to have headache."

Suresh said," How do you do this."

Cleaner looked and just smiled. He took his stuff and started walking away.

Suresh called him and said," Thank you brother for reminding me the basic lesson of life, maybe because of this rat race world I seemed to forgot how to live like a human, how to treat other people with respect. I really apologize brother for earlier."

The cleaner just smiled and waved towards him.

Today in this world we all seem to be so occupied in the rat race that we even forgot how to stay sane like a human, how to respect, care,show empathy and sympathy, & support others of same kind as us.