Rajinder (name changed) believes God is everywhere and that he does not have to go to a temple or a mosque or any other religious place to worship.
Hailing from a small village in Uttar Pradesh, Rajinder came to Delhi with his family in search of a better life. Sweeping the Bhishma Pitamah Marg for almost three years now, he feels this is God’s way of punishing him. It is ironic because the garbage he tackles day after day is generated by those visiting places of worship.
“I sweep everyday. But the very next day, the garbage is back. If I don’t clean the road even for one day, people will not be able to visit these religious places,” he says.
Rajinder says he suffered from dengue last year, but the civic agency took two days to arrange a substitute.
“I heard people couldn’t pass the area as the stench from mounds of waste generated made was unbearable.”
The fragrance of flowers that freshen the air initially are later disposed in the dhalao. “The smell of flowers is intolerable when they decay. Sometimes I take the fresh ones home for my family, but I don’t like them.”
Even as a child, he would not go to a temple. “Maybe the day I start going to the temple, I will no longer have to clean roads.”
