(Civic) Sense and Sensibility

Was it that your national pride got wounded or was it that you hid you faces in shame when few weeks back a UK politician had questioned our civic sense? Poor lady! Her comments were immediately painted “racist” and she had to apologize for showing such disrespect and reprimanded for making unmindful comment. If you ask for my answer first, I felt both but it was the main issue that I could not afford to overlook (sadly unlike others). Frank confession...she was not entirely wrong in her allegations.

This is one habit that binds us all. To us, the whole world is a dumping ground. Yes, anything outside the periphery of our house becomes garbage bin. And before you point fingers, think of the earbud or a small wrapper or any tiny bit you threw outside of your window without blinking twice. There you go…it comes too natural to us.

Let’s step outside. No matter which rank of restaurant I visit, I tend to avoid a visit to loo (and I mean actually using loo and not just reflecting on the mirror). Don’t you get the same creepy feeling? After all we all know that right from local Mc Donald’s to a good restaurant in suburbs, loos’ condition is same everywhere. It’s used as if no one else is going to use it ever after. Don’t be aghast to find footprints on toilet seat, watery floor and unclean wash basin. And why only restaurants, we have not spared flights’ loos as well. Using loos in trains, malls, even office space…for that matter any public place is a daunting task.

When you drive in your car the road turns into a dustbin. And be it anyone, from a Maruti 800 to a Merc owner, we take “throw-out-of-window” too literally. And then those “painting-the-town-red” babus, albeit with pan stains…they don’t differentiate…anything from commercial building stairs to residential building space will do. In fact, right outside in the corridor area, I can see pan stains contributed to the beautification of our apartment by our milk supplier (who sheepishly confessed to his “habit” when I confronted). And of course, how I can forget all those dog(pet) lovers out there, this whole world outside their house is a toilet seat of their pets. As long as their pet is not relieving within the four walls of their territory, that’s fine.

List can go on and we don’t have to look around for the proof. It’s not about you or me…it’s about us. I have no right to point fingers as I lack the civic sense myself. But, it has to start somewhere, sometime, somehow…nay! right now, right away…