STREET SWEEPER

“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.” Plato

If you wake up early in the morning, you can see the street sweepers. These are the people who sweep the streets before you wake up from your early morning sleep. They sweep as you sleep.

They are not lazy. They never look here and there while working. They are mostly work oriented. Their job is sweeping. They have intent expression on their face and they clutch the brooms in their hands, they sweep the streets clean. They try to make the streets look like clean mirrors.

William is working in the city college. He came from England on deputation to India and he likes to see and understand the people here.

William uses to get up before sun gets up. He comes out of his house for early morning wind. It blows smoothly touching his face. Some times it reverberates.
There are clouds in the sky roaring heavily.  Rain drops are trickling on his face.

He stood on the patio. He is looking down in to the street. The boy, the street sweeper, is there doing his job, as usual.

William saw that boy and it is as if usual. William is getting, some how, attracted towards him day by day.

The street sweeper is in neat uniform and he sweeps the street as usual, with great care. This is his usual job.

He is an untouchable boy of around thirteen or fourteen. The broom is in his hand, if not William will think him to be one of his students.

William read that more than 160 million people in India are considered Untouchables tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure and untouchable.

Once, they were not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls. They are called untouchables. Walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense for them in those days.

William liked this boy. He came down from the terrace and stood at the main gate. While the boy is sweeping the road before his house, William looked at him. The boy is busy in his work. He did not pay attention towards William.

“May I know your name?” William asked him.

There is a little bewilderment in the eyes of the astonished boy as he suddenly saw William talking to him.

“Sir! Ramdeen…” The boy replied.

Ramdeen has no disorderly hair. It is thick, black and well combed. He looked like a smart and intelligent student. William saw a bright future for him ahead.

Ramdeen gazed in wonder in to William’s face. Nobody likes to talk with him, so it is a wonder for him.

William asked something about the boy’s family. He answered with great obedience and he gave a brief description of his family.

Ramdeen’s father, grandfather and grand grand father.. all of them are sweepers. This profession is ancestral to him. He has one sister by name Rupali. She has stopped her studies by elementary school and they are looking for a suitable boy to wed her. He is not unhappy for the job he is doing.

“This is the bread and butter giver for my family sir” Ramdeen said.

****
William likes India very much. He likes to do something before he returns to England . It should be something that can be good for the society. He knows that the roots of education may be bitter, but the fruits are very sweet it gives.

“I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. Some people unable to go to school were more educated and more intelligent than college professors” says Maya Angelou. This may be true. But, we need total guidance which is available from education only.

William convinced Ramdeen. It all happened in the early mornings while Ramdeen comes to sweep the street and William tries to sweep his mind.

“I cannot leave this profession. This is the means of living for us.”

William knows that Ramdeen is right and he should not be disturbed from his profession.

“I know. You must work and earn. Do you know, what people think about you?”

He looked in to Williams eyes sharply.

“I know sir. You don’t think, what they all think. We need not care for everyone around us. If we wish peaceful living, stop caring all you hear. We cannot get transformed as every one wishes. So I stopped caring the comments coming from every side.”

“How many days or months or years, you will be like this?”

“As long as I live sir, because, it is hard to bear harsh things in the beginning, not always. When we are used to it, nothing will be harsh or hard.”

William was happy. He started his mission.

Ramdeen slowly got the intense desire, ardent affection,  enthusiasm towards education. William gave all the needed support to Ramdeen.

William sowed the seeds and the plants grew and getting growing up to touch the sky.

Ramdeen wondered that anyone can be educated without going to school or college. It is the great ease and he felt it thinking “grow up” at once immediately.

William is the force behind  Ramdeen and he is getting refined and climbing steps up to reach the heights.

The gem is getting polished. We know gems, not bothering who polishes and presents it in to light.

William’s main interest is India and its people is getting shape. He wanted to show that what a teacher can do to society. He showed it before he goes back to England.

****

Time has come. William is going back to England in few weeks. His departure from India is with great happiness.

He saw his dream fulfilled. He made a gem unearthing from the people around him in India.

It is the street boy who became IAS officer. The competition is open for riches to rags, if only you are ardent dreamer of silky future like bed of roses.

Nobody knows that Ramdeen who stood first in IAS this year is..a street sweeper.

This news is not hidden or unknown from the notice of the principal of the college where William is working on deputation from a college in England.

The college arranged a farewell party to William before one day he is leaving India. The principal made his own arrangements.

“It is great pleasure for our college to have Mr William’s services. The other side of the services of Mr Williams is not uncommon. He did a great job. I am introducing a gem called Ramdeen, a street sweeper cum IAS winner who is polished by Mr William. Ramdeen is once happy as a street sweeper boy. Now, Mr William is happy to see a street sweeper to sweep the society instead of just roads of the streets.. I am happy to see this boy is IAS  first ranked brilliancy in our state and he is our william’s new-found excellency.”

The principal introduced Ramdeen with a stunning silence in the college students gazing Ramdeen.

Students and lecturers wondered to know that an ordinary sweeper is now IAS officer.  They applauded with their clapping the hands together.

We are always students, not masters. We have to keep moving forward with getting enlightenment.
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