OF
CLUTTER CLEARING…
By
JACQUELINE COLACO
I am beginning to think that I need a clutter counsellor,
because this area of one’s life seems to be the hardest to tackle, especially
when you have collected sixty odd years of miscellany around you. But in all
earnestness I have made an attempt. Turning sixty, two plus years ago, jolted
me into the realization that I had now moved into the ‘fragile’ bracket of the
living, and so it was time to put my life (or should I say ‘after life’) in
order. In all fairness to myself, I got cracking and within three months had
done with the making of my will and instructions for donating my body for
medical research, so that my ‘after life’ clutter causes no dilemmas.
Now to the present, which is proving more
difficult. I made a start by opening up a large wooden box, a great hideaway
for stuff, under what functions as my divan. I was overawed by the surprises
that tumbled out; stuff from my parental home in its day of elegant
entertaining - fish forks and knives, after dinner coffee spoons, some bits of
china crockery, an assortment of this and that, other pieces of which had gone
to my siblings. As a natural consequence, my memories drifted back to the days
of that home, with its houseful of seven children. Those were the days, so how
could I throw away these lovely reminders, although redundant as far as now
using them in my own home is concerned. Nostalgically, I placed them back in
the box. What else came out was easier to deal with - an array of steel ‘tiffin
boxes’- the giveaways from my erstwhile employer Bank of Baroda, every
Foundation Day. These I pulled out and have since distributed to eager maids.
Hurrah! One step forward. There were other things as well; you cannot imagine
how large that box is! I think it was used by my uncle Gerry D’Souza, an army
man during WWII, because it bears his name painted on top of it. Thereafter I
guess my parents found it useful to cart their bulky ‘household’ from place to
place on every railway transfer. Let’s not digress however, as there was more
to find in this bottomless box. Lots of crystal/glass dishes purchased by me
during my own sojourn in New York India and
live in Buckingham
Palace
But
wait, I did not close the box as I thought ‘what a waste of good storage
space’, and so, when on to the cupboards, it was a simple task of clutter
reorganization instead of clearing. All that the cupboards contained was
precious. Again, the thought of that rainy day which looms in our minds when we
have to part with unwanted stuff, popped up large as life. The box thus once
again took care of the extras. As a result, I still have loads of un-needed possessions
ranging from a Walkman to VCR and TV of ancient vintage, a wealth of LPs and
Audio/Video cassettes (believe they are
catching the world’s fancy again, so aren’t I wise?); clothes so out of fashion
from decades ago that they’re back in fashion too. An uncountable number of
other odds and ends still lie around, especially in the kitchen. Papers too
pile up for constant sorting. And what if I add what’s stored in the
computer…another universe in itself, with CDs and DVDs to boot…
In
the final analysis - well - gold and silver have I none, so what the heck, let
me cling on to all these inconsequential treasures collected over my six
decades, each of which has a special
memory attached to its acquisition! But, but, but… a most challenging and
niggling task still remains – cleansing the clutter of mind, heart and soul
(and not to forget that of the body – FAT!). A resolution for 2012 perhaps…
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