Only if I was born in a king’s palace…

Swachh Homes for a Swachher India. Like Charity, doesn't even cleanliness begin at home?

Imagine… Or even a kingly house, as in the Ambani household, or even the Mital’s household.  There I would have scores of servants pampering me.  From cleaning utensils, to washing clothes, from sweeping floors to doing my make-up, for every small little thing I would have people around.  I wouldn’t have to even lift a finger. And things would be done in a jiffy.

Crazy thinking, huh?

Yes, I know, only if you are out of your mind, you would think this way. Not everyone is born with a diamond spoon in her mouth. Not everyone has the opportunity to sail through their life smoothly without performing their basic duties. Karma, I suppose. Ambanis and Mithals may have done some good karma in their previous birth.

And since I and you are born in average families, the task of keeping ourselves and surroundings clean is upon us. Depending on others will only disappoint you, for instance Mr.Sharma’s family. 

With every member busy, every day seems to be a whirlwind in the Sharma household. The family members do not find time to talk to each other, let alone find time to clean the mess that’s created in the rush of things. 

Mr. Prime Minister’s chant of Swachh India may have reached its crescendo, and Indians might be literally pouring their energies out to make this campaign successful, by cleaning the galli, mohallas, but what about our own homes.

This is what happens in the Sharma household, which unfortunately the members of this household are oblivious too.

1] Shweta Sharma is a beautiful college going girl with lovely long tresses. She loves to flaunt her asset by keeping it open. So obviously, she oils and shampoos her hair regularly. So far so good. But then the tragedy is that her shampooing only makes the bathroom more untidy. The shampoo pouches and hair clog the bathroom drainage so much so that the water from the bathroom seeps its way to the bedroom. Despite being aware of it, Shweta forgets to clean up the mess her shampooing has created. Despite telling her several times, Shweta seems to take the situation with a pinch of salt. Anyhow, Shweta’s father is sensitive about the situation and cleans up the mess, which his daughter has knowingly or unknowingly keeps creating.

Learning: If the opposite party has turned deaf ears to your preaching’s, take it upon yourself to clean up the mess. 

2] Sharma household has three little bathrooms; one bathroom for every room precisely.  To keep the users from slipping, there are doormats  placed at the doorways of every bathroom. So far so good. But these doormats gather dust in enormous amounts.  Just lift these doormats up and you’ll see the amount of dust these doormats manage to hide within themselves. Of course the doormat is doing its job well. But then it has its limits too. If it’s not cleaned regularly, its capacity to hold dust won’t be the same as before. So it requires constant cleaning. But who cares at the Sharma household.  However, the newly arrived daughter-in-law seems sensitive towards it and cleans it up occasionally, if not on regular basis. Hopefully, it would become regular, going forward.

3] Sharma aunty is a working woman. Despite all the education and exposure, she has failed to figure out the basic difference between the cloth that’s used to clean the kitchen cabinet and the cloth that’s used for mopping the floors. She alternates between them. Man. Yes, a cloth used for mopping is being  used  to clean kitchen stand and cabinets as well? Stop ummming and ahhhing …that’s too much I know. Again, the DIL intervenes, and makes her aware of what is she doing.

4] There’s Sharma baby as well in the household. Too small to walk, it crawls everywhere. Despite being aware of this fact, there are many members in the household who walk around the house in shoes and slippers  that are meant for outdoors. So what happens is that all the dirt and dust from these shoes get struck in baby’s hands and it unknowingly licks it. What will the baby know? So naturally, the baby suffers from diarrhea and other diseases on a constant basis. 

The baby’s mother to dissuade the use of outside slippers at home has time and again requested her family members to cooperate and leave the slippers and shoes in the outside shoe rack. However, things haven’t improved much, despite regular requests.

5] And whenever the mama of the house visits, one can see broken bidis and ash lying all around, including the bathroom. The whole house smells like hell. But in the name of relationship the members of the house tolerate him.

Like charity, even cleanliness begins at home. Hopefully, the Swachh India campaign will inspire people to keep their homes clean as well and hope even the Sharma family gets its together.

This post is part of Banega SwachhIndia campaign by Indiblogger.