BITTER BYTES

A country of painters

I do not travel by the Mumbai local trains often these days. But just the other day I had an opportunity to do so. Waiting at the Charni Road station at an off-peak hour I saw an empty, mauve coloured train passing by idly, probably returning to the yard. For those who are not from Mumbai city, would like to inform that in the last few years, the dull brick-red rakes have been replaced by warm mauve rakes and bright canary yellow rakes with brighter, better interiors.

I saw the sides of the rakes plastered with a great number of streaks of red and maroon, of different sizes and shapes. As the train advanced, I could notice that the sides of not one door or a window was minus the tobacco and paan streaks. The passengers had been generous enough not to spare a single one with fountains emerging from the oral route. The mauve base provided a perfect canvas for the display of people’s creativity. On second thoughts, I felt that the old dirty brown rakes were better; at least they provided a camouflage to some extent.

Why do we have to be what we are? Why do we have to indulge in such shameful acts? Those responsible for this must be a very small fraction of the masses. And they are the ones who decide what the city will look like. And it’s not just this city. Or only the local trains. Visit any city, any public place. Railway stations, compartments, government offices and hospital walls & corners, street walls, parks, you name it. Litter and tobacco stains will be the most prominent part of any facade.

And the same set of people on an overseas trip of a developed nation (if they are fortunate enough) will think ten times before spitting or littering. Or for that matter, even here they would refrain from doing so in a private office or hospital. In air planes. Do we spit in our own homes? Then why spit in a public place. Because it doesn’t belong to us? Says who?

How does it come to an end? Expecting the administration to be strict and put a tab on it is too much. It’s been tried before far too often. Besides, the administration has far bigger responsibilities (how successfully they manage to fulfil those is another topic of debate), than keeping a check on this national hobby of ours. I think it has to come from within us. We as responsible citizens need to put a stop to our zeal to display our creative abilities. The next time one of us decides to spits paan or tobacco, let’s pause for a moment and have a close look at the collage created earlier by some of our brethren and visualise how nice the place would have looked without the ‘Hussains’ of the world in action. And decide for ourselves what we want. The choice is ours.