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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Is There any Place Which Is Not Cluttered?

This post is about clutter. So I am not responsible if the following looks like clutter. 

At the workplace, it's a mess of artworks, newspapers, magazines, designs, paper and clutter. On the roads is a clutter of hoardings and advertisements and hastily stuck notices reading "Baba Hakim Bangallee's Instant Remedies", in the toilet somebody has scrawled dirty pictures, at home there is a clutter of credit card bills and internet connection bills, in the station the cleanliness has been obliterated with a notice stating "wanted smart girls/boys, monthly five figure salary with only office work", in the market there are vendors spilling on the roads, on the roads are parked cars in a big clutter, the bus stop is pasted with posters of "Pastor Mathew Chirayil, coming soon", the booking office is defaced by a poster "Senior Citizan, que here," the restaurant has a cluttered board stating the following:

"No arguing about personal matters
No sitting for long
Pay bill to cashier
No fighting with waiters
No tipping
No sharing half tea with friend"

I have a no clutter policy at home. And I enforce it. So I have minimal furniture, less pictures on walls, less newspapers lying around and I try to keep everything in their place. My wife is a keeper of old things, I deliberately throw away old things. She has rescued several magazines, shirts, trousers, sweaters, etc. which she gives to the poor. Once a rickshaw driver asked me if I have any old clothes and I brought him home and gave him some. I don't see him now, or, I would have given him the things I have bought in my impulse buying sprees. I ask him if he can pick me up and drop me to the station, he says that won't be feasible as he doesn't have a fixed schedule. 

The newspapers are cluttered, the television is so cluttered with their ticker tapes that watching it is a pain. They have BSE, NSE, Dow Jones, Futures, Dollar Rates, all flashing together. What's wrong with these people? I wonder. The internet is cluttered with several banner ads flashing their messages, the roads at night have a number of neon signs flashing - which is the only clutter I like to see -, the road is cluttered with hastily disposed plastic bags when I go for a walk in the morning, the sky is a clutter of clouds, the people clutter and cluster around as always.

Meanwhile, here's the star I put up for Christmas. Hope the joy of Christmas touches you and brings peace to you. 

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