Dirt Hurts #TheGreatIndianLitterbug

I love my incredible India with all her beauty, spirit and spirituality. But if there’s one thing that’s a blot on our fabulous landscape, it is the zero regard for littering. I am not proud to admit that people have absolutely no compunction about throwing their trash in any form wherever they want.

Years ago, I remember, the building complex in which we had our office had embedded tiles with a photos of deities at every landing in the staircase to keep people from spitting and littering and… never mind!. It would look absolutely gross – red streaky stains! Sadly, even God couldn’t control them and people continued to spit the remnants of their betel leaves there, careful to avoid doing it directly on the deity. Small mercies!

Imagine – if that was the plight of a flight of stairs inside a building – what treats would a public roadside receive? There are trash bins in plenty all over the place, kindly installed by our municipal corporation. There are “pourakarmikas” – the caring people who keep our roads clean. Yet, we have people throwing garbage all over the place – packed in plastic, no less.

It isn’t unusual to see an imported car zooming by…and slowing down at some point to fling their garbage bag, often loosely packed – out on to the pavement – and zooming off again. You’d think they’d feel guilty – but no. You’d think they’d have some sort of a system – but obviously not. You’d think they care – no way! These people also never hesitate to throw empty disposables out of their car window without bothering to check if it hits a pedestrian.

The good news is the Swachh Bharat Campaign that is now in force, aiming for a cleaner India. We’ve become more conscious about taking action.

But we’ve no hassle seeing the funny side, too!

I hope you enjoy the following limericks dedicated to #TheGreatIndianLitterbug

Dirt Hurts

Be it Prema, Pasha or Peter,
Be it a veggie or a meat-eater,
The truth, however bitter
Is that we Indians litter;
Adding here a kilo, there a liter!

What’s done can’t be undone.
Spit or shit – it’s all out in the open.
Our junk-Bahadurs throw plastic
Which would make even a pigeon sick;
We ought to be christened “Pee-Jan”.

Our “nose job” needs intricate mining
into deep recesses of nasal lining.
no hanky-panky for us
to dispose of that mucous.
Truly India’s shining!

When foreign lands we visit,
we adapt, we fall in line, we fit.
Back home, how are we so dense
as regards any civic sense?
Patriotic in spirit, and not in habit!

Here, a king among men
produces quite a fountain
at the street corner he stands
lowering the front of his pants
and shows why India’s Number ONE!

♥

A humorous take on The Great Indian Litterbug with Times of India

P.S. The featured image is a bull stuffed with trash, from the campus of the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath that I shot.