The Caretaker

It was a landlocked place with few inhabitants and a few work in progress construction going on.The silence was very comforting except for the occasional express trains speeding by.Standing at the doorway  I could see the caretakers a husband and wife duo  taking sand bags on their heads to the second floor of  the building in progress. Their only child aged two was happily playing in the nearby sand heap and also assisting by shoveling some sand into a sack and lugging whatever his tiny shoulders could withstand, lending support to his caretakers.

The child hummed along .I heard no complaints of not having good toys or  biscuits or Kentucky Fried Chicken or the Cornerhouse Ice Cream.It sounded rather strange.Perhaps not subjected to  enough exposure. As soon as the time neared  for end of a  day's work they quickly freshened  and left for the day. I felt strangely happy  at how the three of them supplemented each other.

Through the windowsill I became  a daily witness to the caretaker and a young inmate of the nearby bungalow.Perhaps for paucity of funds or perhaps the exorbitant fees for  a maid, the caretaker doubled as a domestic help. These services of the caretaker remain unpaid and is not accounted in our national Income.

Yet we find without fail sons and daughters  oozing  oodles of love on mother's day and father's day.

It was a routine, by 10 or 11 each day the young inmate woke up,quickly freshened as if to catch the express train and quickly slung a bag as if  leaving for making better prospects in great haste and returned each evening  in a great rush as if something was misplaced.

It amused  the onlooker because  no value was added anywhere except in  fantasy.This was a daily affair.  Conversations were few and far between. Sometimes just to ask  for the  insipid menu to decide whether it is worthwhile eating. This has been a routine for quite sometime.The onlooker wondered at what was their role in life .It was just pushing each day to the next, no aim at all in life.

One day a singing  bard came to this landlocked place. All the inhabitants came out to listen.Few listened and  and were amused as he rendered it so  flawlessly simple the narration  of his  role as a caretaker in the family.

The young said it was "bull shit' while the old wiped their tears  as it was the same  untold story  in their homes being a daily witness to it.