Come friend, lets hold each other's hands and make an effort together !

My neighbor Mrs Pawar is an old lady in her mid 70s - she resembles a typical Indian mother. I had been to their small little house once to meet Mr and Mrs Pawar as a new neighbor.I was absolutely enchanted at the warmth they greeted me with! I developed a strange bond with his Pawar couple.

My daily regime is home-work-home , 9 - 9 and hardly get any chance of interacting with them. Everyday when we come back , we see the surroundings in front of our gate is absolutely clean and think the gardener cleans the area everyday! He does a good job, ow we pay him I guess !! I was whipped back to my civic senses a few days back while i peeped out of our drawing room as I was working from home ! Mrs Pawar was sweeping the entire area with a broomstick and clearing away the weeds!! The surprised and ashamed me, went promptly and asked her "aai (mother in marathi) , why are you doing this ? " .. she replied with the same innocent smile on her face "an untidy appearance does not give a positive vibe" .. d mesmerized me immediately threw my next question "but why you ? why not ask the respective house owners do that?" .. the same calm n sweet lady said with the same smile "i do it because its visible to me and costs me nothing, others will do when they realize" !!

We come across so many sights a day which are not very soothing to our eyes - child labor, poverty, beggars around, alcoholism , druggist , duping and what not. The easiest thing we do is to keep away and best thing we do is criticize. Often we are found saying "ohh this is what I hate in our country, when I was in UK at least i never saw child labor!" or "ohh people lack civic sense here, the streets of America are so neat!".. We do spend money in luxury and good/bad stuff like shopping, party , alcohol , betting and what not! We earn in 10 digits and we save in whatever digits - all for ourselves. While we read about poverty and child labor in newspaper and get served by children at the street side tea shop, sometimes we chuckle and comment about their misfortune. The question that really shook me up is "what steps have I taken to contribute in their betterment that I deserve speaking about their misfortune ? - do i sponsor a child? do i save for a future investment in at least 10 street children ? do i spend time educating them rather than going partying and socializing?? We read motivational pieces from famous impressionists like Shiv Khera or Robin Sharma , but do we speak to our family, friends and neighbors about cultivating good habits or developing a positive mental attitude ??.. well, i think many of us would get an answer no!!

We discuss the latest movie in box office n go to a movie together, we speak about the latest trend in Wills Lifestyle and go shopping together. Can we talk about the visible gaps in our surroundings and take some corrective and preventive measure together ?? Can we realize that taking an effort costs nothing , a ocean is composed of drops , drops of our efforts can make a mass !! My senses say "yes , of course" ... What do yours say!!

Drop in your comments, friends :)