S.A.J Shirazi
In some way sweeper Ashiq Mang knows so much more about life that anybody else does, about grief, about happiness, about pretense and falseness of life. There is nothing in his own life, which he would like to hide or not talk about.
Ashiq has been working at our home for two years. My friendship with him developed when brought me laddoos on the birth of his son. It was a very pleasant surprise though later my wife and children hesitated to share the sweets with me. I offered him a cup of tea over which he started talking and gave me the chronological narrative of the life, experience and reminiscences. Then we used to talk whenever got chance to meet on holidays mostly, when he was late doing his job at our place or I came home early. He may not be a good communicator, but has definitely enriched my vision. He is so candid and honest about every thing.
Happily married to a working woman for last 18 years, Ashiq has six daughters and a son. He has his own home consists of one room, verandah, bathroom and kitchenette where he lives with his family. His wife also works as a cleaning lady besides giving birth to and rearing children. He told me about the tube legation of his wife, her miscarriages and death of their first daughter and how they have had so many children for want of a son, whom he wants to educate.
At one point early in our friendship he started narrating his observation of the job.
“Every body is fixated only on keeping their house clean, oblivious of any thing beyond their four walls. It take four hours to clean that big bungalow whereas they pay me only for two hours. I work in six houses and they all want to get their house to be cleaned first. They have so many guests every day. They do not buy brooms and wipers in time. They litter the house thoughtlessly. Most of the educated women of wealthy families have neither time nor desire to keep their houses clean. Most surprising is that no body pay in time.”
“There is no love in that house,” he once told me about one of his employers, “no body talks to each other. Even the kids do not talk or laugh. Every one in the house is locked into a shell. It seems as people from different families are staying in a hostel. It is suffocating to work what to talk of living in their house.”
Then he told me about another superstitious character who would wash his furniture items like tables and sofas, pens, shoes frequently and his hands every time he would shake them with another human being. Ashiq said simply:
“Sahib thinks that not only the air is polluted but every thing is contaminated with lethal germs.”
Incisive analyses by a person who cannot read or write contain spontaneous and honest reflections of our society it seems.
After having completed 15 years of colored service in armed forces he is reemployed by a national company where he works from early morning till noon in addition to working at different houses. His wife also works at different houses. Remembering the period spent in the service he says:
“It was the best time of my life. I was young. I used to clean single men’s barracks meticulously and all service men used to look after me affectionately. There used to be Christmas greetings and gifts for me. Life was so orderly, organized and happy.”
He narrated an incident happily:
“During my days in service our company was given a quiz with a question: What is the name of the person who cleans your barracks? They had seen me cleaning the barracks several times, but most of the young soldiers did not know my name and in their paper left the last question blank. Before the day ended, every soldier knew my name. The problem with the present employer is that no body seems to bother about my name and the company deducts pay if I do not go to work even for a single day for any reasons.”
Ashiq Mang is leading a comfortable life in his pensions, pay and some additional amount he and his wife get by working at the houses.
“Wealth has nothing to do with happiness,” he once explained to me philosophically, “in my life I have seen people with lot of money living miserably miserly and unhappy.”
Proud of his job to contribute in making the world a little cleaner place to live in, Ashiq loves his life, wife and children. At the age of 47 years he says that he has never fallen sick despite of hard worked and always busy hours. He dreams a lot and is looking forward to his retirement, for the second time, when he will have all the time to play with his son.
Ashiq as I know is kind trusting and warm, willing to share his joys and sorrows, openly and freely. The only regret he says a little wistfully is that:
“People treat us discriminately due to our job. We are denied our basic cultural and social rights. We have to have our own utensils in order eat or drink at any house, in case they offer something. We are also human beings with emotions, passions and all”.
Credits: Photos for this article are taken from flickr.com and they are NOT of Ashiq Mang. The photos show people in similar jobs as Ashiq Mang.
This is an excellent post and reminds me of the sweeper who used to come by our house, Arshad. He was/is a great guy and it was always a pleasure, and an educational experience, to chat with him.
As I was reading your post, I was shocked to find that Mr. Mang in only 47 years old. He looks much older and that is obviously a reflection of the tough life that he has led. Which makes his positive attitude all the more impressive and inspirational.
Dear Shirazi, thank you for a thoughtful post which raises some hard questions about who we are and what we do. Questions that we usually prefer to ignore and keep quiet about (that maybe why you have a lack of comments here!).
We talk about morality all the time as if we are so pure and so righteous; we get all worked up about global politics as if our rants will actually do something; we know exactly how every politicians has messed up everything; and we all (me most of all) have ready analyses for everything that explain all the hidden secrets and conspiracies of the world. But our own actions and what we do in our own lives is so full of contradictions, hypocracies, even munafqat. It takes Ashiq Mang to show us the mirror on our own actions and attitudes.
Maybe if we all started with changing the injustices that we ourselves commit everyday, then we will inch closer to doing something about the larger injustices of society…
But, NO, that will be too difficult because that requires US to do something ourselves… it is so much easier to pontficate about what others are doing wrong…. so, OK, lets get back to our pontfications on grand politics and hidden designs and blaming others for the mess we have all helped create ourselves!
Thank you Ashiq Mang for showing me the mirror. But, sorry, we are too busy now! We have a world to save. Saahoni sazishain to resolve. Conspiracies to unearth. Right now we don’t have the time to change our own actions or ponder upon our own injustices!
I have also witnessed that people doing menial jobs in the society are treated menially and sometimes have their ‘utensils’ separate too. This is probably the first place for a society to act to make sure people are treated equally.
The last few lines of the post about separate utensils triggered this train of thoughts.
During my short lecturership experience in Peshawar when I hugged a sweeper who visited me for eid greetings, many students simply froze. Few stopped by my office to express their views and concerns and yet another vocal group declared me a non-Muslim. Few months later I exited the land of pure.
We have so many social hangups – it is incredible and mind boggling. By and large, and as the current events testify, we have failed to appreciate humanity individually and collectively.
Separate utensils is something I was thinking about just yesterday. We talk about the hindu caste system in the paste tense but fail to see the parallels in our own lives.