INDIA (UN) CIVIC– PURE IRRITATION!

There are some things that are not just momentarily disturbing but can give you a persistent irritation and various forms of venting your anger; you might feel like killing a person, breaking his bones, banging his head or sometimes your own against the wall or shouting on the top of your voice. But actually you just walk away silently, wondering and consuming your poisonous irritation all by yourself. Ladies and gentlemen, yes, I am talking of the poor civic habits one encounters in public places. It gives me an instant bout of anger that drives me to do such things but as I cannot, I have to walk away silently like a lost solider, feeling frustrated and helpless.

I went to this beautiful park once, graced with natural beauty. I saw a few middle-aged ladies chopping their vegetables there. They were preparing for dinner actually so they thought this public park to be the most appropriate venue for this act; I wonder might be their kids were preparing for their final exams in the kitchens! Anyway, so this chatty group, heavily inspired by the K- serials (I guessed this by their fancy attires and their ‘intellectual’ chat topics) did all their work like trained robots, but left the waste including the rotten veggies and plastic bags there only. Now that’s bad. They should have thought of maintaining the beauty of the park. After all, public property belongs to all of us.

The ubiquitous paan spits are just too common to talk about. I once saw a high profile executive spitting in his own office stairs! After all office stairs are some sort of public property too. As I was helpless, I imagined a satisfying scene wherein I played the role of messiah of the public property and the ‘Rajnikanth’ of my office. I imagined dragging the executive along those stairs till he swore never to do such a thing again. That day-dream was enough to cool down the flames of my mental fury (you can try this too if your boss does such an act!)

There are some things that aggravate these poor civic habits, like the plastic wrappers, that one can see flying like birds here and there, teasing you on your helplessness in keeping them in their right place- the dustbin.

The cell phones, now every one has one. They have emerged like Indian fundamental rights, for everyone irrespective of caste and creed. One can see people talking loudly over phones, sometimes the silliest details of their lives out through this personal loudspeaker. One in such case should have a handy aspirin ready.

Then the pets, those cute and harmless looking pets can create havoc in that nice public park or that surprisingly clean looking road if they are having their after-meal walk. The owners too allow them as they are outside ‘their own’ homes, so where are the problems?

Then the most common of them all, peeing against the wall.

It is inbuilt in the DNA of Indian men. No wall can stay clean if it faces a public place or a road. Take the case of Bihar. The government was perturbed (surprisingly, did they get time from crimes?) with this peeing problem. They tried every thing from posters to graffiti to monetary fines to physical punishment but to no avail. How can you change the DNA of an Indian male?? But then one thing worked: they pasted the posters of a few Indian gods on those walls and the peeing stopped. See, we are religious people, at least in some things!

I happened to visit a heritage monument and was shocked to see the names of lovebirds inscribed on every possible surface like trees, stones, walls etc. Such a ‘lovely’ country we have, everyone loves someone but what use is love unless the world does’nt know. Is it necessary to tell the world in such an uncivil manner? I feel like executing such lovebirds by hanging on that same tree!

Sometimes I feel Indians take pride in displaying their ‘sophisticated’ behavior or they love the public places so much that they feel free and their dormant emotions come out. But, on a serious note, this behavior must be stopped and individual self control and education can be an effective way out. People must feel responsible and should care for others too in the public places. Putting dustbins at proper places can help. Sometimes it is the unavailability of the dustbin too. Then, plastic bags must be banned. But these are the measures of managing garbage. The core issue here is the lack of civic habits in most of the people. I feel individual commitment towards keeping our cities clean must help. Teaching kids sophistication right from the childhood can help too. Poor civic habits give rise to more garbage that in turn encourages the people to add their bit too in that stinking and ever growing pile.
This vicious cycle needs to be stopped through individual efforts.

(This title is inspired from the tag line of Honda civic – pure exhilaration)