The other day, I saw a status update of a friend on the popular social site Facebook which said:
"kicked the f***in shit out of a guy who refused to bin his plastic bottle. his argument was the railways have employed people for this."
Being someone who moves around in Mumbai city regularly, I was not surprised by my friend's experience. But the fact, that his good intention was resisted upon by this very “educated urban young thing”, and that my friend had to hit him to put across the point, was appalling to say the least.
Made me think…….
Where are we moving towards as a nation? What about the values we learned as children?
Move about the city and I bet one can ever come back without witnessing someone either spitting on the streets, or urinating in open. Throwing garbage and other debris on the streets seems like one of the fundamental right envisaged by our forefathers. Young and old, rich and poor alike are united in one aspect i.e. dirtying this lovely city.
“That it is the job of the Municipality”, “ We pay our taxes yaar”, “ Government must have some work” are some of the dialogues one can hear, when reminded about maintaining cleanliness of the public place. It’s a sad commentary on the collective psyche of a nation.
And this phenomenon is not just restricted to the big cities like Mumbai or Delhi. It is as rampant in rural India as it is in urban India. At times, I am tempted to call this phenomenon as “INDIANNESS”
If one thinks that it is a class/gender issue. Think again. Rich or Poor, men or women, educated or the illiterate, all are united in soiling the motherland. And think of it, we take pride in calling our country BHARAT MATA…meaning MOTHER INDIA and do not think twice when spitting on the Mother’s face. Pathetic!!!!
It seems the subjects of Community Living and EVS is for gaining that extra mark in the exams, nothing more. Frankly, I do not see any change in public attitude in this regards for years to come. The only hope, which remains is that the young children of today be responsible citizens of tomorrow…….
But then we were children once, and we were also thought
“CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS”…………
