Mr Clean with a difference

FUJAIRAH — Cleanliness is a job, a profession and duty for Raja Anand, a cleaner working for the Fujairah Municipality.

By Salah Al Deberky (our Staff Reporter) (A day in the life of….)

Published: Sat 9 Feb 2008, 8:59 AM

Last updated: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 5:36 PM

Clearner Anand Since the time he set his foot on the UAE soil 10 years ago, Anand, a native of Andhra Pradesh in India, has been toiling. He says, “I start my day at 5am to reach my work site at 6am and toil there until 6pm with a three-hour midday break. However, I take only one hour to have my lunch and resume work.”

“I usually go to my work site which the municipality assigns. I begin with the busiest of roads in the emirate. While I am on duty, I watch people driving their cars on their way to work and school buses carrying students who sometimes wave at me,” Anand says, adding “sometimes, I see a group of students waiting for the school bus but some of them drop tissues and empty sandwich bags on the street.”

“I have tuned my life to this job. I am happy that I am in a government job which fetches me Dh800 a month, out of which I send some amount to my wife for taking care of the daily expenses. I have three kids,” he continues. “I am lucky that the municipality has provided me and my colleagues with accommodation. Salary, too, has been increased by 70 per cent from this month.”

Talking about the difficult moments in his job, Anand says, “Although rains delight me, rain waters make my job difficult.”

“My dream is to raise and educate my children to the highest levels. I would like to see one of them become a computer engineer, another a teacher and the third a doctor. In my childhood I dreamed of joining one of these professions, but I could not make it,” he says. “Ten years on the roads gave me a chance to observe closely the evolution of urban development in Fujairah, which means mounds of garbage.”

“I also made many friends whose names I don’t know, but they greet me either by honking or waving at me while driving to work at almost the same time everyday. Sometimes, I miss certain motorists but when they show up again I feel relieved,” he adds.

“I wish if some nearby school invites me to lecture schoolchildren. I would urge children not to throw waste like cans and chips bags on the street,” he hopes.