Clean-whats that?
Cleanliness is next to Godliness - Whoever said this, the saying does not seem to go well with Indians.May be it is not appropriate to generalise this, but yes a large section of our society is blissfully unaware of words like cleanliness or civic sense or hygiene.I am just attempting to highlight the civic sense or rather the lack of it amongst Indians as I see, day after day.
Sample the following scenarios:
1)RED RAIN: You are riding a bike and suddenly red color thing is sprayed on your crisp white shirt you had saved for board meeting.And before you get all scientific and think it might be acid rain, just look up at the bus near you.In all probability the red spray was the by product of some person eating PAAN and spitting in whichever place they thought it is convenient.Is it their fault that they eat PAAN, they cant carry a mobile SPITBIN you see.Anyways for most of the people, spitting is like a hobby here.Once I was slowly walking from my bus stop to home.There was a lady walking just 5-10 m ahead of me and for every 10 m she walked she was spitting on the road without even seeing if somebody is passing by.
2)FAG TROUBLE: Yeah, these are the next menace. People who cant give up cigarettes even if they are going to a hospital.Some people smoke so much in public places I wonder if some competition is on.And they cant just stay stationary and smoke.They have to walk while smoking( note its not smoke while walking), ride bikes while smoking and I dont know what.No consideration for people walking on roads or other vehicles on road. I even saw one expert who was riding on one of the busiest roads with a mobile transfixed between his ear and shoulder and cigarette in other hand.In all these things we are more than capable of proving our expertise.
3)GARBAGE RELOADED:We talk about mosquito menace and fatal diseases like Dengue and Chikungunya.One look around where we stay and we wont have second thoughts on how much susceptible we are to such diseases.We dont have concept of garbage bin as world is our Garbage BIN.We just dump our waste wherever there is free space even if it means some body else's vacant plot.Or we just literally let it down the drain.The road to my house has a small place where all the possible garbage from the area is dumped.The stench is so horrible that scientific community must have to start thinking of inventing nose clips or filters.Who cares but, people from the most posh houses there also indulge in this.Even hotels, road side eateries all have public property as dumpyard.People buy snacks, eat like gluttons with that loud crunching noise and drop the remains and cover on the road. How convenient!!
4)MESSY LOO: Have you ever tried public toilets anywhere in India , especially bus stations or railway stations.If you have tried out of necessity, there is high probability you wont try it once again.They are the most unhygienic places in the entire universe.No regular cleaning, no water nothing.And even taking a long train journey is a pain in the neck.The toilet is just going to be absolute mess and that stench can make anybody pray to lose their smelling sense.Even the pay and use ones are just marginally better.Even if the people who manage it clean it regularly , people make sure they leave their marks behind.aaargghhh.Its no surprise that in the matter of sanitation, India lags behind countries like Bangladesh.When people have public places for sanitation purpose and all other dumping purpose, what to expect.
These are some of the very common problems we encounter in India.Now before we start bashing illeterate people for making country unclean, its a fact that most people indulging in such uncivic behaviour are well educated.How come Indians who behave so irresponsibly here go and obey rules like no spitting, no smoking in a country like Singapore.Then we go and blame Government for not cleaning the place and blah blah.I believe as citizens we all are equally responsible for keeping the country clean and hygienic, whether its road, public toilets or any public place like parks or hotels.Unless Indians have a change in mindset of preserving public property and doing their best to keep places dirt and pollution free, we cant expect anything to change.There is no magic broom to clean out all the mess we have created.Remember charity begins at home.Unless we learn importance of cleanliness and have some civic sense, Dengue and Chikungunya and malaria will continue to haunt us for generations to come.
Sample the following scenarios:
1)RED RAIN: You are riding a bike and suddenly red color thing is sprayed on your crisp white shirt you had saved for board meeting.And before you get all scientific and think it might be acid rain, just look up at the bus near you.In all probability the red spray was the by product of some person eating PAAN and spitting in whichever place they thought it is convenient.Is it their fault that they eat PAAN, they cant carry a mobile SPITBIN you see.Anyways for most of the people, spitting is like a hobby here.Once I was slowly walking from my bus stop to home.There was a lady walking just 5-10 m ahead of me and for every 10 m she walked she was spitting on the road without even seeing if somebody is passing by.
2)FAG TROUBLE: Yeah, these are the next menace. People who cant give up cigarettes even if they are going to a hospital.Some people smoke so much in public places I wonder if some competition is on.And they cant just stay stationary and smoke.They have to walk while smoking( note its not smoke while walking), ride bikes while smoking and I dont know what.No consideration for people walking on roads or other vehicles on road. I even saw one expert who was riding on one of the busiest roads with a mobile transfixed between his ear and shoulder and cigarette in other hand.In all these things we are more than capable of proving our expertise.
3)GARBAGE RELOADED:We talk about mosquito menace and fatal diseases like Dengue and Chikungunya.One look around where we stay and we wont have second thoughts on how much susceptible we are to such diseases.We dont have concept of garbage bin as world is our Garbage BIN.We just dump our waste wherever there is free space even if it means some body else's vacant plot.Or we just literally let it down the drain.The road to my house has a small place where all the possible garbage from the area is dumped.The stench is so horrible that scientific community must have to start thinking of inventing nose clips or filters.Who cares but, people from the most posh houses there also indulge in this.Even hotels, road side eateries all have public property as dumpyard.People buy snacks, eat like gluttons with that loud crunching noise and drop the remains and cover on the road. How convenient!!
4)MESSY LOO: Have you ever tried public toilets anywhere in India , especially bus stations or railway stations.If you have tried out of necessity, there is high probability you wont try it once again.They are the most unhygienic places in the entire universe.No regular cleaning, no water nothing.And even taking a long train journey is a pain in the neck.The toilet is just going to be absolute mess and that stench can make anybody pray to lose their smelling sense.Even the pay and use ones are just marginally better.Even if the people who manage it clean it regularly , people make sure they leave their marks behind.aaargghhh.Its no surprise that in the matter of sanitation, India lags behind countries like Bangladesh.When people have public places for sanitation purpose and all other dumping purpose, what to expect.
These are some of the very common problems we encounter in India.Now before we start bashing illeterate people for making country unclean, its a fact that most people indulging in such uncivic behaviour are well educated.How come Indians who behave so irresponsibly here go and obey rules like no spitting, no smoking in a country like Singapore.Then we go and blame Government for not cleaning the place and blah blah.I believe as citizens we all are equally responsible for keeping the country clean and hygienic, whether its road, public toilets or any public place like parks or hotels.Unless Indians have a change in mindset of preserving public property and doing their best to keep places dirt and pollution free, we cant expect anything to change.There is no magic broom to clean out all the mess we have created.Remember charity begins at home.Unless we learn importance of cleanliness and have some civic sense, Dengue and Chikungunya and malaria will continue to haunt us for generations to come.
posted by Chitra Shenoy at
10:30 AM
1 Comments:
Your post brought back some unpleasant memories - the sight of the beetle leaf stained walls of govt offices and the smell of public toilets ( if you had the misfortune of entering one, you would feel mentally scarred and unclean for the rest of your miserable life ).
And you are right. Hygiene has no relation to literacy. To prove my point just look at the friendly neighbourhood IT pro - using his index finger to dig for gold in his enlarged nostrils, all the while tapping away merrily at the keyboard.
Having said that one person CAN make a difference. Read Okhil Babu's letter to the Railway Department
"I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is
too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore went to privy.
Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with lotah in one hand and dhoti in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on plateform. I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station. This too much bad, if passenger go to make dung that dam guard not wait train five minutes for
him. I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake. Otherwise I am making big report to papers."
Okhil Chandra Sen wrote this letter to the Sahibganj divisional
railway office in 1909. It is on display at the Railway Museum in New Delhi. It was also reproduced under the caption "Travellers' Tales" in the Far Eastern Economic Review.
Any guesses why this letter was of historic value?
It apparently led to introduction of TOILETS in Indian trains!!!!!
By
Sachin R K, at 1:35 PM
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