Let’s talk about littering today. I have, to be very honest, an infrequent litterer, if there is such a word. I have done my share of throwing things out of the car window, mostly when I see a garbage heap, secure in my knowledge that it will be swept along when the sweeper appears in the morning.
In my neighborhood, the old sweeper starts cleaning the streets at four o’clock in the morning, cleaning up the neighborhood. He sometimes stretches and arches his back muscles, his workload quite heavy. My neighbors are quite considerate, I daresay. They throw the trash at the call of the sweeper, who carries them out. But not all neighborhoods are the same, you see!
V and I were walking down the streets to my favorite lake, and we were hopping and skipping over the uneven path, avoiding plastic bags, dirty napkins, fecal matter, and empty plastic bottles of popular soft drinks. V, ever the dirt hater, was vocal about the way people should clean up after themselves and make sure others do too. “People should understand the reason why you should not litter – we are leaving a much dirtier world for ourselves, actually, our own children. When they come around, they will learn from us. We cannot set a bad example to them.”
Actually, if you think about it, the more you litter, the more you waste, the more you are leaving this world with things to clean up, things to make right. The thing is, if one person throws out something, others follow suit. I still remember watching a cartoon, where one person left a single piece of dirty linen on a flat surface, and soon others followed suit, and when the man came back, he found a huge mountain of dirt.
Do not let this happen any further. I do not want to see my family member, my future generation suffer for what I have done, and I intend to come clean. I have decided to take up the challenge to clean up after myself as much as I can, and motivate others too. This means no littering, no throwing things randomly, and helping out others to clean up our world, one neighborhood at a time. It is not just my space, it is also a matter of making my country better. I have heard people talk about the beauty of India marred by the dirt, pollution and littering, and yes, they are right. I don’t want to see India drowning in a pool of dirt.
At present NDTV is one of the key players, looking out to make India cleaner. Check out their website, http://swachhindia.ndtv.com/, where you can log in and check out the campaign to clean up India. If we take one healthy step at a time, we can clean up after ourselves, and if everyone does, then India will be a much cleaner, healthier, and, if I may say so, beautiful country.
Disclaimer: This post is written in response to the “Banega Swachh India” in association with Indiblogger.
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