The ugly Indian

Venue: the central bus stand, Chennai

What: a wall, quite old or maybe not that. Just that the remnants of betel leave eaters makes it look shoddy. Very dirty indeed. And needless to say the smell of urine reeking from such public places makes the sight unbearable.

Come rains, major parts of the city can be seen flooded with dirty water with garbage once dumped by the roads, floating on it. We knowingly unknowingly become the part of “nation trashers!” Nation, yes indeed! Because the dirty streets, paan spewed roads, garbage filled nook and corners, leaking pipes, unmanned holes and public urination places are a national shame!

For the international visitors to India, India is a land of beauty and a close alliance to nature. But the truth doesn’t lie concealed – nor does the dirt on the streets, the garbage dumped by roadside which houses flies and feral dogs, and the public urination places leave any stone unturned to lessen the beauty.

I feel the NGOs and various committees which organize volunteered beach cleaning, road sweeping events et al do a very commendable and respectable job. The act is a paradigm of success and togetherness at behest of a person’s own will. For not many have the thought of giving back to the society. But again no matter umpteen times the streets are cleaned, the beaches have respite from the plastic and dirt shrouding their beauty, nothing ever changes. It is all back to the drawing board.

It’s time we realize that we have been brought up with the sloppy mentality, the art of keeping our homes clean at the price of dumping trash on the roads and the street corners. It is not the streets, the corners and the beach walk ways which need a sweeping; it is the minds of our very own people. The dirt settled in one’s mindset needs a scraping, for newer and better thoughts to settle there. The thoughts which will force us to think twice before we start littering our streets, with the wrappers of edibles we consume or the paper cups we use.

Why do we not think once before trashing our nation, but the same “we” when go abroad, would not even leave a paper bit on the nicely kempt streets there? Yes, the rules in most foreign countries would ask you to own up even your dog’s poop, let alone leaving you get away with not using the trash bins. If our government can’t come up with such stringent rules, should not we take up the task of being responsible in the li’l ways we could!? There is a lot for the government to do, agreed, but there are still trifling things we can take care of.

By not littering our streets deliberately, to start with. There are dustbins at street corners; we can make use of those. We keep our living rooms spruce and clean, why dump the waste on a roadside and make our nation look sloppy?

Nobody needs to start sweeping the streets or start whitewashing dirty walls, at least we could check ourselves when we are unconsciously or in many cases consciously litter the places outside. We ourselves show a tepid interest in the betterment of our nation, then hell should we expect foreigners coming as tourists to appreciate it. They write about India being hot, polluted, and having beggars wandering all around. True that. But why add more to the list. Doing the small things from our sides would not be a Sisyphean task, then why not do it!?

A cleaner and greener India should not be a distant dream, let us all play our small roles towards bringing that out!