When its a Mess

Ranjit sat in his room going through some pages of information to prepare a report before he left for the office the next day. There were momentary glitches in the thoughts that distracted him.



Ranjit was a very focused person otherwise and it took something more than the ordinary to bother him like this. Ranjit looked at the closed door of his room, tried to go back to his work, but then pushed the chair back and got up.


He opened the door to the unpleasant smell and turned on the drawing room light to the disaster that had been left behind. Human beings, what makes them different? It’s obviously their capability for a higher level of thinking, they can make their lives organised, they can decide upon a certain mannerism of living, but at the base certain things are the same like for example health and hygiene. I for one am a firm believer that cleanliness plays a key role in supporting mental and physical health.



Ranjit lived in rent, a small two bedroom apartment that he shared with Akhilesh who came to stay after Ranjit. Ranjit knew from the beginning Akhilesh wasn’t exactly disciplined or a person with serious aspects regarding achieving something. He was simply here to earn and spend to enjoy his freedom.



Ranjit made a group on a messaging application to share what was to be done or not done, they mutually discussed it of course, even though Akhilesh agreed to anything Ranjit said, not giving it much attention at all.



Three months had passed, things were manageable for Ranjit, even though things had become noisy, not only because of the loud music but also because of the regular coming of Akhilesh’s colleagues for the occasional dinner. Ranjit did talk about it to Akhilesh and things would cool down for a while but they would go back to being as they were. Many times Ranjit had to push Akhilesh to clean the mess that the ‘occasional dinner’ had left.



Akhilesh had suggested keeping a housemaid but Ranjit didn’t want the extra expenditure. How much effort does it take for two young people to keep a small apartment neat and clean? Apparently, a lot when the other person is not keen to make the effort.



Ranjit was out for three days, for his cousin’s marriage and he came back to find a nightmare. By the foul smell things had been left like this for at least two days. Clear signs of the colleagues coming over, more than the usual by the number of dirty utensils left on the dining table. There were bottles of alcohol and disposable glasses rolling on the floor, food still remained in the boxes they came in and munchable snacks were everywhere, on the floor, on the sofa. Worst part of it, someone had vomited in the kitchen sink. The only thing clean was Ranjit’s room and the bathroom attached to it since for some reason Ranjit felt it would be better to keep it locked before leaving.



Akhilesh wasn’t there and he wasn’t picking up calls. His room was open with his things all over the room and Ranjit didn’t even want to guess why the bathroom of Akhilesh’s room smelled so bad.



Ranjit sighed as he looked at the unbearable sight. He really liked the apartment, but this clearly wasn’t going to work. He packed his things, took photos of the mess for the owner of the apartment and he drove away to his distant relative’s house for a few days until things were sorted out. He came back a week later, to the apartment clean of all the mess and most importantly clean of Akhilesh.  

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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