Presenting, two heroes among many of Dharwad...

The lady in the foreground sweeps the winter leaves, piles them at various spots to later burn them. Her, I've been able to befriend within a few days of having come to this area and we exchange pleasantries from my balcony every morning. She inevitable ends up borrowing the matchbox from me as we have fun with her trying to toss it back up to me and me trying to catch it in vain!

I watch her every morning as she tirelessly sweeps every single fallen leaf and other trash ever so carefully. I've managed to speak to her about not burning plastic and today, she patiently keeps aside all plastic for her colleague with the wheel barrow to pick up!

The lady in yellow with the wheel barrow is a corporation worker too who comes to collect the garbage from Kalyan Nagar. She's kinda Kalyan Nagar's "Hema Malini" minus the profanities and wild attire. Pretty intimidating with a demeanor and stare to match. But, believe me, she does one mean job of cleaning up the ugly piles of trash that the cultured people of this area callously toss outside their own homes and on their own streets!

The people of this area, especially the guys on the street are suitably intimidated by her and thankfully keep a distance. You can see her every alternate day with her trademark wheel barrow and her faithful dog trotting beside her where ever she goes! Her dog is a character in himself. A tiger-striped deep sienna coat, a tail that's always upright and curled, and a scowl to match his mistress's...

If not on her rounds of the mains and crosses of Kalyan Nagar, you could find this lady and her tiger, oops! dog, sipping chaha outside the dabba angdi at the 6th cross bus stop! What a riveting pair they make!

To be frank, I too am properly intimidated by her and haven't attempted any kind of small-talk with her, like I have done with most of the other women workers on our area! Am hoping to risk it one day to find out her name and get friendly with her dog. I wonder what she calls him? For I've never heard her call out a name!

Let that happen in it's time, but till then a big salute to the quirky yet relentlessly hardworking spirit of these two heroes and I hope to add more to the list soon... :)