WHAT IS IN THE WASTE BASKET MATTERS !

I learned it recently through observation. Particularly the subject was a friend of mine who lives next door to me. I cannot get out of my building without passing through his front door. That narrow corridor with waste baskets in a typical array, in front of each door on both sides, was common to most of the educational institutes I have been. One day I suddenly recalled a fragment of a statement made by some visitor to my school when I was in eleven or twelve - 'teaching in every breath'. I was surprised by the fact that it was a waste basket which triggered this recall. The chain of thoughts kept on developing. From the waste basket I started drawing inferences about the person. Slowly I realized that waste baskets tells a lot.......especially what is being thrown away, about the character of the person. Now whenever I am to throw something away, the schizophrenic coward within me gets scared and insecure. The dilemma of 'whether to throw it away or not' thusly got another dimension. As a child it was the fear of divine curse, in the teens some sort of pseudo societal concern while in the youth a sense of insecurity about perceived threats of scarcity and poverty. It took some time to realize that all these are not distinct but different manifestation of what we call 'fear'. The same fear which cripples the life of millions, which makes people opt for professions they don't like, marry people they don't really love and so on. In short what is in the waste basket matters a lot.

mashoodkk