A Very Happy New year to all those who are reading ....
2008 comes along as the stock market soars, the rupee strengthens and people talk all positive about India. It indeed feels good to be in India at times like these, some 3 years after the slogan was raised - India is indeed shining.
So in this mood, I allowed myself to fantasize further. We went to the Gateway of India yesterday and I found the place quite clean as compared to my last visit, no pieces of paper thrown away, little dust on the footpath and no horseshit on the streets (due to the Bagghis). I was surprised - what had happened? I saw a few dustbins around, but people had hardly taken up the habit of using them - they were still throwing stuff on the street. Then what miracle had happened?
This was when my eyes fell on the army of cleaners with broomsticks in their hands fervently sweeping the footpath and the roads, and dumping the garbage in dustbins. I immediately recollected that I had found the railway stations also very clean on my recent trip - and it struck me!!
What a novel way to maintain cleanliness. While our US returned NRI's keep lamenting about the lack of dustbins in public places in India - we Indians have found a better way to maintain cleanliness. Let people throw stuff on the streets, we will employ an army of sweepers to clean the roads and railway platforms, every half hour and keep things clean!!
Trust me, I am not being sarcastic here!! I am actually saying, that there is no reason to argue that this is not as good a method of maintaining cleanliness than having dustbins all over the place and expecting each citizen to be civilized enough to throw trash in them. What if this was the model of cleanliness in the west too? More employment - and clean public places - I bet our NRI's would have recommended this for India then!!
It is just because the west has a typical problem with their numbers (of people) that they cannot afford such human-intensive way of maintaining cleanliness. That apart I don't see any reason why the Mayors of New York or London would not prefer this to leaving things to people's civility.
What do you think??
2008 comes along as the stock market soars, the rupee strengthens and people talk all positive about India. It indeed feels good to be in India at times like these, some 3 years after the slogan was raised - India is indeed shining.
So in this mood, I allowed myself to fantasize further. We went to the Gateway of India yesterday and I found the place quite clean as compared to my last visit, no pieces of paper thrown away, little dust on the footpath and no horseshit on the streets (due to the Bagghis). I was surprised - what had happened? I saw a few dustbins around, but people had hardly taken up the habit of using them - they were still throwing stuff on the street. Then what miracle had happened?
This was when my eyes fell on the army of cleaners with broomsticks in their hands fervently sweeping the footpath and the roads, and dumping the garbage in dustbins. I immediately recollected that I had found the railway stations also very clean on my recent trip - and it struck me!!
What a novel way to maintain cleanliness. While our US returned NRI's keep lamenting about the lack of dustbins in public places in India - we Indians have found a better way to maintain cleanliness. Let people throw stuff on the streets, we will employ an army of sweepers to clean the roads and railway platforms, every half hour and keep things clean!!
Trust me, I am not being sarcastic here!! I am actually saying, that there is no reason to argue that this is not as good a method of maintaining cleanliness than having dustbins all over the place and expecting each citizen to be civilized enough to throw trash in them. What if this was the model of cleanliness in the west too? More employment - and clean public places - I bet our NRI's would have recommended this for India then!!
It is just because the west has a typical problem with their numbers (of people) that they cannot afford such human-intensive way of maintaining cleanliness. That apart I don't see any reason why the Mayors of New York or London would not prefer this to leaving things to people's civility.
What do you think??
Comments
Post a Comment