There's a small stretch of road leading to Kolkata's main railway station, Howrah, that was once invisible. Commuters avoided it, vendors never set up their trolleys there and passers-by hurried on, handkerchiefs stuffed in their nose. That's mainly because the road, invisible even to Kolkata Municipal Corporation's street cleaners, had for years been buried under a foot of muck. The only time that people living in the vicinity remembered its existence was when they had to dump their garbage. For a truly impressive amount of dirt-and in Kolkata there are quite a few contenders for the messiest spot-this would have to be the place.

TIDY DEAL: The Mullicks remove the garbage and earn a living

When Sunil and Mahindra Mullick first arrived in Kolkata from their village in Bihar in search of work some years ago, they were struck by the stink too. The two boys who shared the same surname became friends on their way to the city. They had nowhere to go, so they made the platform their home. But unlike the daily commuters, who no longer noticed overflowing garbage bins, Howrah's dirty surroundings bothered them. "My father was a railway colony sweeper," says 20-year-old Sunil. "And my mother kept a very tidy house. So back at home in Bhagalpur, we all had a cleanliness fetish." However, after living at the station for a few years, the two boys realised to their dismay that no cleaner would ever show up as the corporation did not bring in a replacement after the man it had hired quit.

That was when they (both youngsters were teens then) decided to do something about their neighbourhood. Since the corporation wouldn't hire them-they claim they approached several officers for a job, but were often told they weren't old enough-they "borrowed" a wheelbarrow from it and invested in a couple of shovels. Thanks to the Mullicks, Howrah's road-that-wasn't now wears a new look. Every day at dawn, Sunil and Mahindra march in with their equipment, the wheelbarrow, shovels and a lot of determination for the back-breaking work.

As the road got more spruced up, some of its earlier inhabitants began to return. About a decade ago, the road was the workplace for more than 150 vendors, who used it as a daily market. But as the road got dirtier and stinkier-a toilet nearby didn't help matters-the vendors began to move out in small groups. Today, a little before the first local train pulls in at 5.30 a.m. the fruit and vegetable sellers, flower girls, betel leaf sellers and other small traders are back with their wares. For Saraswati, a paan seller from Mechheda, a few miles from Howrah, the return to her old spot has been a boon. "When the road started becoming dirtier with each passing day, the other vendors and I had no option but to relocate ourselves in some other place,"she says. "However, as no one came there, business was in a slump."

The vendors, ever grateful to the Mullicks for restoring their old spot, have no qualms about giving a portion of their daily earnings to the two youngsters. After the last few commuters of the day have finished picking out the best vegetables for next day's lunch, the vendors tuck a few rupees into the Mullicks' hands. The two boys, who didn't even have a roof over their heads, now notch up about Rs 1,800 per month. They have rented a tenement close by and have even brought their families to Kolkata to live with them. Now, after a good day, Sunil sometimes has a few rupees left to catch the latest Hrithik Roshan movie, while Mahindra, when he can afford it, likes to take his large family (including his two children) to the zoo or the Victoria Memorial.

However, for the two sons of the soil, this isn't the end of the road. In a few years, they hope to have their own cleaning crew. They've already started "training" other homeless youngsters and urchins who hang around them while they work, teaching them to ferry garbage to the closest municipal bin for the dump truck next day. It's more dangerous work than it looks-sometimes requiring the Mullicks and their young helpers to dodge two lanes of fast-moving traffic. On several occasions, says Mahindra, the cleaning team almost got mowed down by a truck whose brakes had failed. "But our boys have become great shovellers," says a proud Mahindra, indulgently tousling the hair of a youngster. In a few years, the Mullicks' cleaning crew will fan out into Kolkata's other dirty bylanes, like the neighbouring Burrabazar market area. "The work will keep our young apprentices too busy to stray into crime and drugs," says Mahindra. "It will keep them on the clean streets, while they keep the streets clean."