October Rain

Back to concrete, near the China Hut

It never rains in October in Mumbai. But today it did. It was not a ‘thunderstorm’ as predicted by the papers – just a light shower, yet persistent enough for umbrellas to be out. The Garden had also turned wet and slushy, making it impossible to exercise in the grass.
But more than all that, the wet grass made everyone do a rethink on the Cleanliness Drive proposed by Srichand Arora yesterday (see post). Even if it does not rain on Saturday, there will be plenty of dew on the grass to make sweeping difficult.

Monthi Serrao

As Arun Patil suggested, it would make better sense to undertake the sweeping exercise at sundown. “After all, people who litter the Garden come in the evening,” he pointed out.
Santosh Tyagi, who was not present yesterday wanted to know why the Garden sweeper was paid a salary, if we were to do his job. Arora himself has a problem: Where will all the brooms come from? He does not know anyone using stick brooms these days. At home he uses a plastic broom for wet surfaces and in his estimate a stick broom should cost at least Rs100. “If we were to provide brooms to even seven or eight members, it would be a huge burden on the Club’s finances,” he brooded.
Besides, where are the brooms to be stored? Or will they be for one-time use only? If Jagmohan Papneja’s advice is to be followed, we ought to sweep the Garden clean every Saturday. That will put the brooms to good use and also justify the expense. But how many people would agree to the sweeping every Saturday? And will anybody be really serious about bagging a ‘Sweeper of the Year’ trophy, as someone suggested yesterday?
Meanwhile, Monthi Serrao is contemplating another novel proposal: an Annual Day for the Club. “We can have a full day programme of food and entertainment, a fancy dress competition, housie and so on,” she suggested. “Prizes will also be given…” The proposal is still at a nascent stage, but Monthi intends to firm up on it when Shekhawat returns from his vacation on October 18.
Jagmohan Papneja:
It is really terrible to see people throw around waste instead of using a dustbin. We think and discuss cleanliness. The least we can do is to promise ourselves that we won't litter anymore. This should become a part of life.