Civic Sense / non-sense

Mumbai: 11 June 2009

Most of us travel daily - either between office & home or leisure travel with family but we travel & move outdoors. It will be a rare occurring that we do not notice people littering on road / footpaths / public places. These are bunch of people who truly believe in what we see at all public places - "This is your property, please keep it safe & clean". Since this is our property, we will do what we feel like AND why have the municipal corporations hired these cleanliness guys to keep the place clean? - I wonder!!!

And to my amazement, most of these are educated (at least the ones I encounter) bunch who I prefer to call - educated illiterates! Imagine a scene - you are driving with a swanky car in front of you. You admire the car & (may) curse your fate for the small car you can afford. Suddenly - tissue paper flies in front followed by empty bottle and occasional door opening to facilitate spitting & thud! you are out of your dream sequence.

ACT II Scene II
You are enjoying the serenity of the lush garden in your locality, colony or building & you come across a pile of garbage dumped by your friendly neighbourhood, after all they are cleanliness freak & don’t want their homes to be dirty.

Now, what do YOU do under the given situations?

a. Curse them & continue to do whatever you are doing.
b. Curse them & make sure you raise the issue of cleanliness in the next society meeting
c. Interrupt / encounter them & make them realise their fault

Am sure most of us will pick (a) while wish to pick (c). That’s the nucleus of the whole problem. We wish to do a lot for the society, building, and country but hesitate to take the action. Until sometime back - I would also fall under (a) category but now I & my wife have pledged to take (c). We make sure to do our bit by interrupting & making people realise their fault. If it’s a car owner, a NASTY LOOK is all it takes.

Trust me, I feel much better & proud to be able to help (although miniscule) keep the surrounding clean. It all starts with self and only possible when every one of us do our bit and NOT curse other for their inability.

If we have Civic Sense, raise the voice & stop the civic non-sense.

Be Safe!

Naveen Jalan

PS: This is my observation & pledge. Readers are welcome to share their experience / comments.