Dear Aamir,
At the very outset, I am a fan
of yours. It excites me to hear you referred to as Mr.Perfectionist, and to
read about all the effort and hardwork you put in for each of your roles. I
also believe that you would do only what you truly believe in. It is very
inspiring, refreshing and comforting. But
I am not going to talk about that, or about your latest movie, or about the latest hot topic - the elections.
I want to talk about the campaign
that you are part of, called Aditi
Devo Bhava. Before I begin, I want to assure you that I am all for it, and
I have always been. I cringe when I see our people being disrespectful to visitors
(desi or foreign) and taking
advantage of their ignorance. I hate it when I see people dirtying the roads,
urinating by the roadside or throwing garbage outside their car windows.
I fully support the intention
behind the Aditi Devo Bhava campaign, and I hope that at least a
handful of people who watch it are inspired to show some respect to others or
to stop throwing banana peel out their car windows. However, I would like to
bring two things to your attention, to show that even those of us with the best
intentions contribute unwittingly to representing our country in a bad light:
I belong to Kerala, though I live
in Bangalore .
Twice a year I visit my parents in Trivandrum
and stay with them for a couple of weeks. For the past two years, Trivandrum has been
facing a huge issue related to garbage. There used to be a garbage recycling
plant at a place called Vilappilsala. It stopped functioning over two
years ago. There were several reasons. However, what it means to the residents
of Trivandrum
is that, there will no longer be garbage pickup from their homes. They have to
dispose of it themselves. I am sure you have figured out what I am driving at.
My parents have a small garden. The daily food waste serves pretty well as
manure for the plants. At the corner of the garden, there is a place where they
can burn paper waste. However, there are still materials that cannot be burnt
or thrown to the plants. Not all waste can be recycled at home. There is
nothing they can do. These waste get thrown to a pile at some obscure corner of
the colony. Everyone else in the vicinity does the same. Can you imagine the
plight of people living in small apartments without even space for a couple of
pots of plants?
The second point is about peeing on
the streets. I hate it when I see men standing on the roadside, relieving
themselves as if they were in their own bathrooms. As a woman, I have had to
struggle with this problem every time I travel. I need to wait till I find a
hotel or some place where there is a bathroom, dirty
or smelly or unclean as it maybe, closing my eyes and nose to the unbelievable
sight and stench. I have made a long-distance bus wait for me for ten minutes (with all the passengers watching) while I walked into a roadside house and asked them permission to use their
bathroom. Another time, a friend and I walked into a shady hotel and asked them
if we could use the ladies’ room, and came out without even buying a cup of
tea. And I wonder, if a woman can go through all the trouble, why can’t men?
Why do they feel the roads are their property to dirty as they please? Let me
tell you at this point that my son is eight years old. Having children of your
own, you know how they can be. If you show them a bathroom and ask them to go,
they say “I don't want to.” Five minutes later, they are screaming that they
need to go urgently. By
then we are in the middle of nowhere and the only option is to show him the
roadside. Let me tell you, Aamir, that however much I hate it, I have had to do
this countless times when travelling with my son. Even in the heart of the
city. Even if I hate what I am making him do. Even if I know that my son is
going to grow up thinking the roadside is intended for this purpose. Because I do not have an alternative.
I am sure you are aware of most of
this. If Mohammed does not go to the mountain, there is only so far that the
mountain can come to. It has its own limitations. If the government does not
have a way to clear the garbage, the people have no option but to throw the
indestructible waste wherever they can. If there are no pay-and-use facilities
by the roadside, every few kilometres, we are forced to dirty our own streets.
I am sure there are things we can
do as citizens. There are probably ways we can get around this. I think both
hands must come together to clap - the attitude of the people and the support
from the authorities. Aditi Devo Bhava is a very good initiative in spreading
awareness and I wholeheartedly applaud the intention behind it. However, there
are practical difficulties that people face, that need to be resolved too.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
I had written this some months ago, and was inspired to post this here by this blog by Anamika.
So true. I wonder the same thing about men. In a foreign country, no one would dare to do such a thing. But in our own... it is shameful. Our leaders have to solve the practical problems - someone recently told me that when one party forms a policy, the other party comes and changes it. No proper garbage disposal facility has not been able to survive so far. We can't always blame our politicians... but they are the ones who need to be more responsible, right?
ReplyDeleteWell put.
DeleteInteresting read that engaged me Jeena:-) you write so well:-)
ReplyDelete