Who threw the garbage out?

“Seng daal, Moong dal…….”

“Chiki bolo chiki…..”

Do these sound familiar to you? Well, if you are among one of those who hit Mumbai CST in the rush evening hours, these would be definitely familiar. After a day’s long work, you need something that can restore your energy to levels that would be enough to take you home. After all, travelling by a local, in the rush hour, in Mumbai aint easy. You need a lot of energy!

This scene, too, would be familiar after the train hits a couple of stations - the packet in which the stuff was bought is thrown out of the window. Sometimes, I feel this eating and throwing act just comes out naturally. Some of those who eat and throw, carry fat books – seem to be educated, but are they?

Once in an early morning Vashi –Mumbai CST local, I had the luxury of standing at the doors. The train soon was on the bridge over Vashi Creek. The breeze was so pleasant. There was something unpleasant as well. I could see a couple of parcels of garbage (my logic could not make out if there could be anything else) hurled out of the train into the still waters. Logically, these were carried from home to be dumped. But then, is the creek supposed to be a dumping yard?

An incident narrated by one of my friends had a huge lesson for us. He threw a chocolate wrapper on the floor and his boss picked the same, walked some 20 odd steps and put it where it should have been put –in the dustbin. Simple isn’t it? He could have just ignored it. But he didn’t. It was a life time lesson for my friend, the group of which he was a part and all of us to whom he narrated it. Since then, searching for a bin has become a habit for me. Earlier it wasn’t. Later, I learnt his boss had spent a significant part of his life in the US. So, does our civic sense have something to do with it?

But then, there are these road side paani-puri walas, stalls selling vada pavs…. Some of these really impress me when they direct their customers to throw the plates, papers etc at the designated bin/carry bag. They obviously want to keep the place which buys them their ‘bread and butter’ clean. Don’t we?

For an individual it may just be a small plastic bag, a small plate, a small disposable glass, and a small ice-cream cup….Put together, they pile up and turn into huge garbage. Were we not taught "Cleanliness is next to Godliness", "Environment Pollution" etc.

Are we then, somewhere, somehow, not responsible for the dirty garbage in the city??

Somewhere we are………….!