TGIF!!!

Usually I am sound sleeper, but of late I keep waking between 5 a.m. to 5-30 am. Guess I will have to tune my "body clock”. It was around 5-30 am as I woke from my sleep. It was pitch dark outside. There were still few minutes to go before dawn. The moon cast a beam and the stars were shining bright. I could hear the birds chirping, the young birds, probably hungry and asking their mothers to feed
them.

As my eyes started drooping again, sound of splashing water grabbed my attention. It doesn’t rain in last week of October in Mumbai, I thought. I grew curious and dragged myself from the bed, to see what’s going on outside.

I saw a silhouette of a boy around sixteen years. He looked thin, fragile and wore light clothes. He was washing cars parked in our building compound. The very thought of putting my hands in chilling water early in the morning made me go numb. But for this boy, his business for the day had just begun. He had a simple business. Every day he comes early in the morning, washes cars and goes back home. He charges 10 Rs. for a car wash and enjoys doing his work.

In my office I greet a colleague Good Morning and ask him What’s Up. He replied "TGIF" "Thank God It’s Friday". My thoughts immediately wander to the car washer. I wonder whether that car washer would have ever thanked God for a Friday. In fact it hardly mattered whether it’s Friday or Monday. The corporate world is all together a different place. Here we have some of the most educated people in the country. We have salary, perks bonuses, appraisal and insurance. Yet there is a sense of insecurity amongst us. What if there’s a lay off? What would happen if company transfers me to some other location? What if the project that I am working on got scrapped?

Devoid of any education & financial security, the car washer is able to handle life more easily than most of us. Hats off to that Car-Washer for his resilience.