On a cleaning spree

My Dad is on a cleaning spree today. So, I joined him too. We started from cleaning the Air Conditioning unit. Much to my Dad's chagrin, a pair of pigeons had set up their luxurious abode behind the unit. I pulled a face at the items we found in the nest; long thin knitting needles, chocolate wrappers, cotton, pigeon poop, yarn threads and pen refills. My Dad meticulously cleaned the area, sprayed a disinfectant over it and dusted the cobwebs off the external walls. It was a lot of work. Dad is like a superman with a vacuum cleaner and I was his glad assistant. It's fun to work with my father. He cracks jokes and tells me his school memories, we often end up laughing for long hours.

Tomorrow we are cleaning the old trunks and the books inside them. Since we are running out of space now in our house for stocking newer books, Dad and me have decided to have a look inside the trunks and chuck unnecessary material. Both of us have an undying love for the old. We store magazines, old trinkets, knick knacks from the past, almost everything that is a reminiscent of our younger years. My mother keeps screaming at both of us for storing such a large amount of junk, but we don't relent. Hopefully, we will be able to clear the trunk this time.

These cleaning sessions are highly therapeutic. As they say, clutter occupies more space in our minds than in our homes. Sometimes, the physical clutter is less harmful than the one we keep building up in our minds and hearts over time. That needs a priority cleaning. Dad always led me by example since my childhood about cleanliness. As an architecture student when I would leave my papers, drawings and model materials all over the house, he would clean it up but also give me lessons in packing and labelling my papers. Those were valuable lessons emulated by examples set by my father.

As a kid I looked forward to weekends and holidays so that I could spend time with my Dad while cleaning and oiling our Bajaj scooter, or going to the markets and doing household chores together. As a child, these father-daughter weekly activities made me confident about sharing everything with Daddy without any inhibitions or fear that my classmates had for their fathers. We would talk and Dad would share books and read them aloud to me, take me to book stores and allowed me the liberty of buying as many books as I wanted. It was a great time as a kid. He would watch the 7'O clock evening news and made it a habit for me to watch the news everyday and ask him questions over something I didn't understand. He taught me to exercise and would take me jogging early in my childhood. He taught me to thread the needle and using scissors. He was a great influence on me. I learned all basics from my father. We would clean the terrace together back then and he taught me to take care of the potted plants on the balcony and terrace. Little things like watering the plants with just the right amount of water, not too little, not too much, to clean the leaves and add soil to the plants from time to time. It is indeed true when they say children mimic their adults. So, I received my clutter free lessons from Daddy and we keep the tradition alive by cleaning our house together every few months. Nothing leads to more happiness than spending time with him.