Throw it aside quickly - Wrong attitude, not the garbage!

When the rains arrive, I have a lot of fond memories associated with the rains. One of them being, travelling to Pune from Mumbai in an Express Train, along the "Ghaats" of the west. The journey filled with greenery, waterfalls and cool weather was often accompanied by a "Bread-Omlette" breakfast, or a "Chips-and-Chai" snacks. After hogging through, I used to fold the paper/plastic wrapper/anything else and put my arm out of the window, to throw it all away. Just like that. It used to irritate me to the heights more than that of the surrounding hills, when my parents tried to stop me, and put it all aside only to be thrown away later. At times, I intentionally made sure that there's more garbage, and handed it over to them - "Keep this.. Keep this as well..!!"

This was, thankfully, many years ago. We are all embarrassed about some things that we did as a child, and this particular behaviour of mine will remain one such thing for me. But, come on, I was a child! And while I sit here today and type it all away, faces flash in my memory that bore no expressions of realization of doing anything wrong, hands that did not hesitate during the "throw". These faces, these hands did not belong to children, but to adults.

And I can proudly be completely neutral (I wanted to say secular, but then......) about the owners of these faces, these hands. Men, women, Educated, uneducated, all alike. Please note, I have used educated-uneducated, not learned-unlearned. Anyway, to continue, people across age groups, across religions, all alike. At schools, in trains, on beaches, on streets, in canteens, all alike. The lists, sadly are not limited to just these.

Haven't we all criticized our motherland for it being an unclean, messy place? We love our Bollywood movies, and there's a reason for many or most of them being shot in foreign locations. And an acknowledgement of that reason is our general reaction when we see those scenes - "Such wonderful, romantic and clean place!" We step out of our homes, and the journey of most of us starts with dodging and jumping through crap, to keep our shoes polished, nice. We see "Holi" being played throughout the year, with the colored "Pichkari" decorating the streets, the walls, the corners. We see people enjoying a quick snack in the bus, in the train and throw the wrappers - away if in bus, down if in train. We see, we come back, we sleep. Worse, maybe, we follow.

Is it really, the only way to go about it? Do we "have to" so blatantly disregard the norms? Aren't there enough options available? One might argue that there's no "infrastructure" - it is our favorite, isn't it? That there are no dust-bins available that regularly. Really? Can a person standing on the platform of the train say this, when he/she throws plastic on the tracks when there's a dustbin right behind him/her? Actually, excuses for the sake of excuses are dime a dozen. The reality of the fact remains that we are simply not prepared to take even little extra trouble to look for a proper disposal outlet. We are not ready to wait for even a minute and hold on to the crap when there's a dustbin coming up. We are not ready to walk a meter or two extra to reach out to the dustbin and do the needful. Probably because, we know - rather we assume arrogantly - that someone else will take care of that.

Watching "Munnabhai" and the "Gandhigiri" has come as an inspiration for me, in this case. There have been many incidents, when someone throws crap so carelessly, I simply pick it up in front of them, keep it either in my bag or else in my hands, and wait to spot a dustbin. The good thing is, "most" of the times I have not had to go to the dustbin. Perhaps the realization, or perhaps just the public shame strikes these people and they ask to return the "gift" agreeing to throw it away, where it should be thrown. I know at least a couple of friends of mine who do the same, and who say it works with the most.

But the picture is not so pretty always. Two days back, I did the same thing with a 50-something uncle (who'll be referred to as "The Uncle" throughout this post). He had enjoyed his packets of popcorn, and thrown the wrappers right where he sat in a train that was about to reach its destination equipped with dustbins. But the act had absolutely no effect on him. He was in conversation with a fellow passenger. He looked at me for exactly a second, and carried on with his conversation. His companion talked something about "the problems in the country". And I could not control myself before pointing out that "these" are the problems in the country. Result - another second of looking at me followed by continued conversation from "The Uncle". His companion, however, was surely embarrassed. By the way the sadistic pleasure is not the reason, why I do it. It is simply because at the end of the day I know that I did not simply "take the shit". That I did at least a part of my part.

Back in the engineering days, some my friends and peers realized this fact, that we have to play our part. They were prepared to walk not just one, but several extra miles to actually do something about it, and I was fortunately a part of it. We walked those extra miles, quite literally, cleaning up through a famous beach and a major railway station in Mumbai. A friend of mine opposed to the idea of this drive. Opposed in a sense that he refused to participate. Not because he was insensitive to this issue. Not because he didn't care. He did care, he was sensitive, but he was sure that this won't help. That this was a waste of our time and energy, which we could utilize to do something better. Maybe, he had met more of "The Uncle" people in his life who watered the plant of skepticism inside him. But, finally he agreed to be a part of that idea, and we agreed to later take part in another idea of social welfare that he had (I told you, he wasn't insensitive. Perhaps, he'll be reading this post.)

Oh, and by the way, it is not that I love to be such pain in the ass for people like "The Uncle". But I'm sure, I would seem like one, had I done something of this sorts with you. Many of you may laugh this post off, with the tree of skepticism firm inside you. Some of you may even feel offended while reading this. But you know what, you should feel offended. Not because some "aira gaira" is giving you shit, rather because you are giving shit (quite literally) unnecessarily. You are doing something wrong. You have an opportunity to grow as a person, as a citizen. It is not a mountain to climb, it is not breaking stone. It is simply a habit, an attitude silently waiting for you to inculcate it in yourself. This is not a foolish "gyaan". Imagine you not spreading crap, imagine even others not doing it. Even if you are skeptical, what's the harm in at least changing yourself? And really, it is not difficult. It is perhaps a question of realization, and I'd conclude with the same thing that I told my skeptical friend - "Even if one person changes positively because of this, I'll consider this time and energy spent well."