Blog@GraceJunction

 As we read in the papers, one lady (a britisher by the name Christina) who challenged the Ahmedabadi people to keep the city clean, has brought big shots and like wise common people to hold brooms and sweep the roads (other than of course our reporters who are taking pictures or covering the event!)

The usual mentality is like this …..I had it like this:
Usually, when I go in a car, if I have eaten anything and a wrapper is left, I just roll down the windows and throw it over on the road. It is like who cares anyway - India is a big dustbin. My husband keeps the wrapper near his seat and brings it home and throws it in the dustbin. I always used to think, “Why does he have to carry it all the way home, after all India is a big dustbin?”

Once we were traveling with my sister-in-law and her kids and after finishing “Kurkure” they were holding the wrappers in their hands (the kids were just 2 and 4 years old). So I rolled down the window and asked them to throw the wrapper out. But their mother stopped them and reminded them that, India is our country and we should keep it clean. “Wow! Nobody ever told me that when I was young!”. It really struck me and made me to think that if we as parents don’t put the basic into our kid’s lives, not only India but even their very own lives will become similar to a big dustbin.

We keep our houses clean and also teach our kids to do the same but what we do outside the house, will not the kids learn that too? You know, this is called “Being selfish in being or keeping clean”. And then we blame all the other people who don’t keep the place clean. Try an ST bus stand or a railway station or a hospital (since these are all government maintained, who cares?)

Recently, we went to a McDonalds and as we were sitting there we could see the kitchen and as we kept watching them work. We saw they had gloves in their hands and caps on their heads to maintain cleanliness. As we sat there and watched, we saw a person who was taking bread, and suddenly one of the breads just fell from his hands. But he just took it and gave to the one who was cutting it. My husband asked me if I saw that? I said let’s tell the manager. So he said something that really made me think. This is what he said “You know he did it because cleanliness is not on the inside of him.”

The wrappers flying out of the windows suddenly struck my mind. I looked inside of me and it was like oops!!! I want things neat and clean from others but what about when it comes to my own self. Is cleanliness deep down in me? No, was the answer.

So I started working on it and slowly it led me to so many other things which I needed to work from on the inside.

Going to America will teach you to keep your surroundings clean but only as long as you are there. Many Christinas will come and go but are you going to change the root cause.The moment you come to India it will be the same old you. But if things change on the inside, you don’t need to go to America. Doing religious things or yoga or going to a class of etiquettes and manners is like going to America, things will change for a temporary period. Yes, we can work hard trying to change things from outside to inside but it will be vain.

You know only a manufacturer knows his product best. Just the same way the only person who can change things from the inside on a permanent basis is the one who made you. The only living God who created you, knows how to set the inside things right. And when the inside things go right it just shows on the outside. Everyone should meet his/her Creator and get things on track.

Tags: Christina, Cleanliness, creator, inside out, outside in

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 3:30 am and is filed under Articles, Jisha, Life Lessons, Society, Thoughts, Trends, Women's Issues, Youth Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.