The broom and the room

One of the rooms in a house, the dining room, started complaining on the negligence of the broom while it is being swept. The dining room said, “Oh! No, not again. It has been the same since eternity. Neither the broom nor the broom holder ever change their sweeping pattern”, to the other rooms. The big brother, the main hall, wasn’t sure of what the whining is all about and hence enquired, “Hey! Brother. What is it that makes you sad and complain on the broom’s pattern? It carries on its duty of cleaning us all brothers equally. And it does so every day, mechanically, as well”.

“You think so? That’s pretty selfish on your part” retorted the dining room.

The cleverest of all, the study room, stepped in to give a clear picture to the confused hall. “Dear Big brother, we all know that the broom follows the same pattern of its duty everyday. It starts with you, then covers the bedrooms and myself before dealing with the kitchen and the prayer hall and eventually rounds it off with the dining room (leaving the exteriors). And that’s his problem.”

“Is that a problem? I don’t see any” confirmed the big brother with due ignorance.

“Can’t you see the problem? You see that everyday he neglects me as I am the last one he cleans and he never understands my place in the house. I take care of all the feeding part which holds the key to those humans working properly and efficiently. And still I am the last guy the broom takes care of?” lamented the dining room.

This made a desirable impact on the listeners and everybody started to realize this negligence on their brother as unjust but secretly they were happy as they were not the last standing ones.

Reading the minds of his brothers, the Prayer hall, the wise one, who had been a silent listener till then intervened. “Sorry to interrupt, but with your permission I would like to say something here” he said.

Everybody knew that the wise one is always reasonable and logical in its approach. Even though they appreciated his wisdom, they were apprehensive of his comment on the present topic as it might irk one or the other as one of them had to stand last in the cleaning row. And nobody wished that. But democracy, being the system practiced, the wise one was allowed to comment.

“For anything to be cleaned, the process has to start somewhere. Broom, being the lone tool to do the cleaning, cannot start everywhere. As it has to start at one place it has chosen to start with our big brother. And we all know that the dust bin* is never close by to any of the bedrooms or the study room. So, the broom starts collecting all the dust from each of them and piles it up near the bin which is closest to the dining room. Again, following the same process, the broom collects the unwanted and the dust from the kitchen and myself and adds to the pile already in place in the dining room. Finally, it covers the dining room before clearing the whole rubbish into the dust bin. The whole process is designed around the convenience of doing it the best and most efficient way. It is always preferable to slowly move the rubbish towards the dust bin, the ultimate destination of cleaning, than doing it any other way. Hence the pattern of the broom always keeps the dining room as the last one in queue. This is not partiality or negligence as you guys are imagining. It is pure common sense and nothing else that decides this pattern. The broom’s ultimate aim is to keep the whole house spick and span which it does meticulously and each room is treated equally.”

Listening to this, even the self-centered dining room conceded to the validity of his wise brother’s inference. All of them happily accepted the pattern of the broom from then on and the house remained in harmony besides being spick and span.

Can we draw a parallel to this story and the way things work in any political system? Shouldn’t the citizens realize the enormous onus rested on the Government, be it state or central, and start cooperating to the system than raising fingers at the things still not done? I mean, if the Government is ideally working towards the growth of the society as a whole.

If one single house with just 5-6 rooms can cause a complication, just imagine the intricacies of handling a mandal or a district, leave alone a state or a country?

*Consider that the house has only one dust bin.

Note: The patterns in real houses may differ. Treat this just as a satire.