The Constant LitterER

Last Sunday, I witnessed an interesting incident which involved me to some extent. So here's what happened :

I was standing, with a friend, at a pani-puri stall and enjoying a plate of pani-puri while at the same time marveling at the speed with which the puris are disbursed to as many as 5 customers at a time! Just about then, a portly man with a not-so-pleasant face appeared with his wife alongside us. In a very bhai-like tone, he ordered two plates of pani-puri. When handed two paper and cardboard cup/plates before being served, he gave a casual look to one of them and promptly threw it away on the ground, apparently disliking the contours and asked for another one. Now, my friend saw this, picked up the plate off the floor and threw it into the dustbin, sitting right next to the stall and reprimanded the fellow for being so careless esp when the dustbin was at arm's length.

Now, this fellow was shocked & caught unawares that anybody in the world had the audacity to tell him that! So as a sign of protest he picked up another plate and threw in on the ground. Again, my friend followed the same routine, protesting a little more this time. After this, he unabashedly says, " Why don't you pick up all that kachhra on the streets as well, if you're so concerned? " Obviously he missed the point of the whole exercise! Far from seeing his folly and apologizing, he became aggressive and started shouting back at us. Before we could react, his wife, who stood facing him the whole time, turned around and pleaded with her eyes for us to drop the matter and in an undertone, apologized on his behalf!

This is not a surprising statistic in our country... Indians seem to have a sort of 'litter-fetish'. It's as if we have some kind of phobia of using dust-bins in public places. Now there may be a few who take good care as to keep their surroundings clean at but I'm talking about the over-whelming majority of those who don't really feel that way and hence we have the current state of our cities today! I'm not the only one saying this. Ask Mr. Jairam Ramesh, ex-Environment Minister, if you like and I quote, "Our cities are the dirtiest cities of the world. If there is a Nobel prize for dirt and filth, India will win it, no doubt."

You see people participating in acts ranging from plain spitting in public, throwing bits and pieces on the streets (paper, wrappers, any object small and inexpensive enough) to outright horrendous acts like urinating, defecating & spraying that reddish liquid mixture of paan & gutkha which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'paint the town red'.
Another amusing yet common occurrence is when people throw paper cups out the train windows and into the wilderness. When asked to stop, they justify it by saying, " Oh don't worry! Nobody comes to pick it up out here." But isn't that exactly why one shouldn't do it in the first place?!

The all-important question that comes to mind is : Why are we like this? What went wrong with us that caused us to disrespect the land we live in to such an extent?

Barring the cliched answer that says, "We are like that only!", this is a question which probably cannot be dismissed with such ease. It involves taking a look at our history, the practices and traditions observed, the circumstances that the country and its people endured (illiteracy, poverty, lack of awareness etc) and of course, the psyche of the average Indian. After all, one would imagine that a country belonging to one of the oldest civilizations in the world and a heritage so rich, its people would be some sort of role-models for others around the world. Sadly, that is not the case!!

Many great personalities have devoted their time & effort to this cause and yet our littering juggernaut moves on! More than a century ago, a certain gentleman by the name M.K Gandhi realized the folly of our ways. He made an astute observation that Indians, anywhere in the world, live in generally shabby conditions compared to others and are oblivious of their filthy ways. He tried his best to improve the general living conditions by advocating cleaner habits and practices but alas, he was not to live forever! Sometimes, I wonder whether the following adage was propagated solely to motivate the Indian masses : 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness'

Having said that though, I believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Gradually, over time (read decades) as the Indian juggernaut plows on into the 21st century, we may look back at our ' (g)littering ' history and say " We were like that only!"