We spend all our lives looking for happiness. The perfect job, the most understanding life partner, the big luxurious house, the shining red sports car. These are some of the parameters for us to rate our happiness. But Nirmal Singh has found his fountain of happiness without these possessions.
Nirmal Singh is not a corporate mogul. Neither is he a big-shot professional. He is a waste collector with RoundGlass Foundation’s Waste Management initiative at Tangrala village in Punjab. Nirmal Singh worships his work. His dedication is so apparent that the initiative’s success in the village is hugely credited to him.
His infectious and bursting happiness rubs off on the people he interacts with every morning while collecting daily household garbage. Villagers eagerly wait for him with morning tea, breakfast, and snacks as he goes door to door gathering the garbage. His attitude towards life and work brings immense positivity into the lives of everyone around, and the villagers shower him with love for the same.
Before joining RoundGlass Foundation’s initiative, Nirmal worked as a sewer cleaner. His mother was also a sewer cleaner, and as a child he would accompany her to work. From earning Rs 0.25 as a sewer cleaner during initial days to earning Rs. 8000 per month now, Nirmal feels he has come a long way. In his own words, “I like this work because it has helped me run my family. I enjoy what I do. If you don’t love the work you do, it will never help you grow. But if you happily do your work, it will bring progress along.”
It is unbelievable that Nirmal draws so much happiness from his work. Hearing him talk about his job sounds like an artist revering his craft. Though he is aware that society doesn’t consider his work respectful, but such thoughts don’t bother him. His children asking him time and again to quit his waste-collecting job and take on something more respectful doesn’t flinch him either.
Nirmal has found his happiness. And he is not scattering it away because of what people think about it.