Home Alone Chronicles: Starring - 'The Broom'

  
No work, no chore, is big or small, especially when you have no option but to perform it. Every day, from the skeletons of upcoming buildings all around, dust comes visiting, laying itself down in layers on the snow-white tiled floor of my home. After a fortnight, common cold had set in, along with suspected asthma. It all sounds poetic when somebody else does the cleaning up, but last Saturday, with a broom in my hand, it sounded, looked and felt like prison work.

Introducing - THE BROOM. Anything in man's creation, made for the sole purpose of cleaning up, has seldom been bright and attractive in appearance.The broom is no exception. Fellow home alone blokes, thee who have not held this revolting device yet, let me tell you, it's no joy to do so. Consider the broom first, shaped as it is without inspiration. Its unimaginative top plastic cover makes one think of destroying it, the dull texture of the bristles that make the other end, is enough to inspire extreme hate.

Now, the broom is best held at the top, with one hand, fingers wrapped loose round the handle, such that it can be manipulated with ease. First, tie a hand kerchief round your nose, if no gas mask is available. Now, bend a little and start from the corner of the room. Let the broom glide down in multiple frisks, rounding up its collection to a central location in the room. Meanwhile, ensure that no accidental breeze or whirls of the ceiling fan scatter your toil. Usually there is a dirt-stuck scraper to scrap all the dust up, and then glide it all down to the bin. Do so and you are done. If you keep washing your hands with soap afterwards, remember, somebody had to do the dirty work.

Postscript: So after a week of sweeping floors, desultory cooking, doing the dishes and beating the crap out of clothes, there is a kind of self-respect that sprouts in one. Steadily, anything with the possibilities to create becomes art. In all chores, there is a method and degree at which, effort can be minimized, and magnified to the attainment of the main purpose.