I had been working much too long on this job. I guess things could have been worse. I certainly wasn't doing hard labour. But going door to door asking questions as a representative of the federal government wasn't the most satisfying position either. It was August. It was hot. I had to wear a tie.
'Hello. My name is Bob Perks and we are doing a survey in this neighbourhood.'
'I'm not interested! Good bye!'
You can't imagine how many times I heard that. I finally caught on and began with
'Before you slam the door, I am not selling anything and I just need to ask a few questions about yourself and the community.' The young woman inside the doorway, paused for a moment, raised her eyebrows as she shrugged her shoulders confused by my rude introduction.
'Sure. Come on in. Don't mind the mess. It's tough keeping up with my kids.'
It was an older home in a section of the valley where people with meagre income found affordable shelter. With the little they had, the home looked comfortable and welcoming.
'I just need to ask a few questions about yourself and family. Although this may sound personal I won't need to use your names. This information will be used'
She interrupted me. 'Would you like a glass of cold water? You look like you've had a rough day.'
'Why yes!' I said eagerly. Just as she returned with the water, a man came walking in the front door. It was her husband.
'Joe, this man is here to do a survey.' I stood and politely introduced myself.
Joe was tall and lean. His face was rough and aged looking although I figured he was in his early twenties. His hands were like leather. The kind of hands you get from working hard, not pushing pencils. She leaned toward him and kissed him gently on the cheek. As they looked at each other you could see the love that held them together. She smiled and titled her head, laying it on his shoulder. He touched her face with his hands and softly said 'I love you!'
They may not have had material wealth, but these two were richer than most people I know. They had a powerful love. The kind of love that keeps your head up when things are looking down.
'Joe works for the borough.' she said.
'What do you do?' I asked. She jumped right in not letting him answer.
'Joe collects garbage. You know I'm so proud of him.'
'Honey, I'm sure the man doesn't want to hear this.' said Joe.
'No, really I do.' I said.
'You see Bob, Joe is the best garbage man in the borough. He can stack more garbage on the truck than anyone else. He gets so much in one truck that they don't have to make as many runs', she said with such passion.
'In the long run,' Joe continues, 'I save the borough money. Man hours are down and the cost per truck is less.'
There was silence. I didn't know what to say. I shook my head searching for the right words. 'That's incredible! Most people would gripe about a job like that. It certainly is a difficult one. But your attitude about it is amazing.' I said. She walked over to the shelf next to the couch. As she turned she held in her hand a small-framed paper.
'When we had our third child Joe lost his job. We were on unemployment for a time and then eventually welfare. He couldn't find work anywhere. Then one day he was sent on an interview here in this community. They offered him the job he now holds. He came home depressed and ashamed. Telling me this was the best he could do. It actually paid less than we got on welfare.'
She paused for a moment and walked toward Joe. 'I have always been proud of him and always will be. You see I don't think the job makes the man. I believe the man makes the job!'
'We needed to live in the borough in order to work here. So we rented this home.' Joe said.
'When we moved in, this quote was hanging on the wall just inside the front door. It has made all the difference to us, Bob. I knew that Joe was doing the right thing.' she said as she handed me the frame.
It said: If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep the streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.' Martin Luther King
'I love him for who he is. But what he does, he does the best. I love my garbage man!'
Although all reports indicate that the city is running at possibly the lowest levels of stocks for certain blood components, it is not that Sankalp is just complaining about it. Over the 2 month period from June 2010 to July 2010, Sankalp organised multiple blood donation drives with more than 1100 units of blood being collected. A million thanks to all the organisers and donors for standing up to the challenge. Here is a brief note on all the various camps held with different organisations.
The dengue infections have reached their peak in Bangalore. We have scores of patients around the city receiving treatment for the same. A direct impact of this is the increase in workload of the Sankalp Emergency Team.
The World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on a world-wide scale on 14th June. This time Sankalp has taken the initiative to organize a Blood Donor Week 
. 
On the 22nd of May this year, Sankalp India Foundation celebrated being 7 years old. To mark this milestone, a small event was organized at MSRIT. Well wishers, parents of volunteers, members from the blood banking community, friends, and people from organizations with whom we work were all part of the event.
The early history of British expansion in India was characterised by the co-existence of two approaches towards the existing princely states. The first was a policy of annexation, where the British sought to forcibly absorb the Indian princely states into the provinces which constituted their Empire in India. The second was a policy of indirect rule, where the British assumed suzerainty and paramountcy over princely states, but conceded some degree of sovereignty to them. .. 
India, a nation that has undergone complete transformation after it got independence from the British Rule. But somehow the influence from the West never ceased to affect our culture and the growth of the Nation. The three major transforms taken from the entire lot is the way Mobiles, Cars and Malls have brought to the India nationality.
The positive role that dairying could play in providing income and employment opportunity was clear to policy-makers long time back and a set of measures were put in place to develop and protect the dairy industry. Immediately after India gained independence, the Milk Control Board was set up which controlled the supply and distribution chains.
India and space laws: A millennium perspective
India is a country with a diversity of languages. Out of more than one thousand mother tongues, only eighteen languages are included in the eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution. Development of a particular state or region, to a very great extent, depends on the development of its regional language. This was an important reason given at the time of the formation of linguistic states, though many criticized such a linguistic “division” or “re-organization”.
Past two decades have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of farmer suicides in our country. Across the nation, lacks of farmers have taken their lives in these years. Though this process is on for almost 2 decades, but it is only now that the nation is getting to know the seriousness and the extent of it. We are going through the worst ever farm crisis in the history of our nation.
3rd December 1984 Shortly after midnight poison gas leaked from a factory in Bhopal, India, owned by the Union Carbide Corporation. There was no warning, none of the plant's safety systems were working. In the city people were sleeping. They woke in darkness to the sound of screams with the gases burning their eyes, noses and mouths. They began retching and coughing up froth streaked with blood. Whole neighbourhoods fled in panic, some were trampled, others convulsed and fell dead. People lost control of their bowels and bladders as they ran. Within hours thousands of dead bodies lay in the streets.
The Emergency in India denotes the 21-month period between June 25, 1975 and March 21, 1977 when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a State of Emergency in India under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree, suspending elections and civil liberties. It is one of the most controversial periods in the history of independent India. During the Emergency, many opposition leaders were jailed, freedom of press was suspended and powers of the judiciary were curtailed
The Ancient Legend 
The All India Muslim League (AIML) was formed in Dhaka in 1906 by Muslims who were suspicious of the Hindu-majority Indian National Congress. They complained that Muslim members did not have the same rights as Hindu members. A number of different scenarios were proposed at various times. Among the first to make the demand for a separate state was the writer/philosopher Allama Iqbal, who, in his presidential address to the 1930 convention of the Muslim League said that a separate nation for Muslims was essential in an otherwise Hindu-dominated subcontinent.
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