Civic sense...what nonsense!!!

On a recent trip to Malshej Ghat, a friend recounted an experience that is worth mentioning....what reminded him of this story was the fact that some of us were trying to convince the others in our group (we were 10 in all) to not throw any waste here and there on our way to this beautiful place in the Sahyadris...

This is what he said - 'During my engineering days, once it so happened that as i was walking on the road, i threw a wrapper on the ground...a foreigner came up to me and asked me to pick it up and throw it in the dustbin...i found it annoying...how dare he ask me to do so??..so i said 'What is your problem? it is my country and i can do whatever i like', to this the foreigner replied,'I know it is your country, but i live in it and so i can ask u to keep it clean'. I realised my mistake, picked up the wrapper and threw it in the dustbin. This man then thanked me and went away. That day i decided that i would never again throw waste around.'

I wish there was one such foreigner allotted to reprimand every Indian who threw waste without any care or concern for the filth that this habit creates (I don't understand why we always need an external force to make us realise that what we are doing is wrong)

However, I feel that the new generation is changing and that it is a lot more aware of its responsibilities...i say this out of my own experience...

During my third year of engineering, i decided to do a part time job during the Navratri season, i was at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad for 9 days. On some days entry was opened to outsiders and they could bring along their families & on some days only college students were allowed.

I would reach my place of work at 7pm much before anyone else and leave at 2 am after almost everyone had left...what i noticed is that, although the ground was cleaned everyday, on the days when people were there with their families, they would leave empty plastic bottles and wrappers everywhere on the lush green ground, but when only youngsters were permitted, the ground was visibly clearer...this gives me the hope that this once extinct civic sense is making its way into the hearts and minds of young Indians ( God pls prove me right)

I remember when i was a kid, we would visit Juhu beach and it used to be absolutely dirty...the government on its part has taken cognisance of the issue and has started cleaning up the beach almost every night...but believe me the sight of this beach at 12 in the night is pathetic, people just don't understand...during our occassional football sessions on the beach at midnight, we have witnessed the beach being cleaned employing both men and machines only to be dirtied again the next day...it seems like a never ending cycle...

I think the only solution besides imposing fines (if even this was done sincerely, half the problems would have been solved) is recruiting foreigners who can reprimand us cos there is no other language that most of us seem to understand...

I Hope that people would be willing to change their habit like my friend did...I am an Indian but i don't mind being considered a foreigner if that helps you to kick this habit of littering :)