Ordinary people, Extra-ordinary deeds ...

Every once in two weeks, I make a trip ... not so much out of choice, as out of compulsion ... to the local flour mill.
In the beginning, we had our own mini flour mill at home ... and all was good.
Then, my mother realised, which was inevitable anyways, that the small mill took ages to churn out even 250 grams of flour, distributed the flour evenly across the entire kitchen, put more out than in ... and basically wasn't worth the time and effort to grind the 5 kgs of wheat every two weeks ...

Then came the packaged flour bags ... and all was good.
Later, the paranoia - the wheat was old, and flour stale which was packed in the bags, set in ... soon the rotis were not soft enough ... and the parathas weren't tasty enough ...
So ... we ( my mom ) switched back to the tried and tested method of :
a:> Procure the required quantity of wheat from the local grocer
b:> Clean it
c:> Send the kid in the house ( the one who doesn't have any work anyways ) to get the wheat ground ...

Earlier, it was a pain in the ___ to have to lug the five kg drum ?? onto my Kinetic ( sunny sometime ago ) ... drive a kilometer ... wait for an hour and then drive back ...
But then, we got lucky ...
This flour guy opened a mill just 20 seconds away from our place ...

That guy turned out to be a nice fellow ...
Generally, I do not really start talking to new people ... but this fellow started ...
Soon, we would chat about various things everytime I waited for my turn ...
Now, I trust this fellow completely ... leaving and returning back to collect the flour later ...
I even get higher priority in a queue ...

I do realise, that this is a thankless job ...
Sitting in the flour covered environment the entire day, doing the same monotonous work day in and day out ... getting raked over the coals every time you delay someone ...
A thank you goes a long way ...

Another group of people that I really am grateful to are the ones where in I pay my electricity bill ... Now this might sound really dopey ... but its true ...
This place is about 3 kms from my place ... a collecting agency hired by the MSEB ...
What is remarkable and admirable about them ( father and son ) is that they are open from 8 to 8 ( sometimes later than that, because I remember paying forgotten bills as late as 9 pm) ... even on Sundays and holidays ...
On many occasions, they have filled in the details behind the cheque without grumbling ... always courteous ...
They make, an otherwise, drab MSEB ... full of babudom, look better ... and make life so much easier for us ...

Lastly, I would mention our postman ...
A jolly fellow ... has been with us as long as I can remember ...
What strikes me about this fellow is the dedication and zest with which he does his job ...
Be it raining or sunny, he's always there to drop in the mail ...
Many a times, when we aren't at home and the mail is registered, he has pedalled on his cycle an additional 2 kms to drop it in my mom's clinic ...
So many times, he has brought in the same mail day after day when we are on vacation ... when he could have dropped a note asking us to pick it up from the are post office ...
I am really grateful to this guy :)

Hats of to all these people ... my unsung heroes ...