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Sometimes it feels as if we are living in a schizophrenic
world. The glossy and the filthy exist cheek by jowl in such
a way in our urban life that try as you may to dismiss it
with a cynical 'we are like that only,' the contrast flummoxes
you. It's very well to gloat over the new malls, the swanky
multiplexes which charge nothing less than Rs 100 per ticket
and revel in that almost all international brands have made
a beeline to our country (for purely commercial reason, of
course, with a booming middle class going on a spending spree)
but just step out from one of these nice-smelling, feel-good
places and you tend to feel depressed. Huge dumps of garbage,
broken slabs of on the footpath, a ready trap for accidents,
greet you. A prime example is Kolkata's Camac Street, a busy
office area and a locale for some of the most upmarket shopping
malls. Swish your credit card and take home designer clothes,
high-end luxury items and imported perfumes. But just opposite,
you confront the stench of a garbage dump (next to a new government
office complex too) which all the perfumes in the world cannot
drown. The street also houses the local British Council premises
and a new hotel both of which try hard to co-exist with a
newly laid footpath awash with leftovers and litter from the
food stalls lining it.
Is it any wonder that diseases linger at every corner? Sometime
ago a national TV channel showed through its hidden camera
spilling-over dust bins within the premises of AIIMS even
as Dengue was ranging in the hospital and a doctor had already
died. Latest statistics show that 4700 people have been affected
by Dengue all across the country, and hree more have died
in AIIMS thus bringing the national toll to 95.
Salt Lake, a so-called posh locality of Kolkata, and home
of many ministers including the doyen of state politics, Jyoti
Basu, displays garbage dumps at regular intervals. This was
not in evidence a few years ago in this planned satellite
township. Perhaps it has something to do with the new and
gargantuan office of the local municipality. And, as if to
keep up with the rest of Kolkata, the flooding problem in
the rainy season has also become common in this area and adjacent
Sector V, the IT showpiece of the government, which was absent
before.
Not that the government agencies are only to blame. Citizens
too are supremely callous about littering their neighbourhood.
Even in localities where the garbage collector comes regularly,
the streets are no less dirty with everything from plastic
packets to dead flowers, apparently offered in the puja room.
That brings us to the agonising question: are we really clean
people despite proudly saying that we have a bath everyday
(unlike some others)? Why are we so unconcerned about keeping
our locality/streets clean while at home we scold the maid
for not swabbing the floor properly? Why are so-called city
sophisticates who drive AC cars and who obviously have studied
in the best English medium schools that maintain spic and
span interiors, think nothing of throwing out empty food packets,
cola cups from their car windows? Even when huge bins are
strategically placed in front of fast food joints, why do
even the young in trendy clothes take vicarious pleasure in
throwing empty cups on the street? Among them are also students
getting ready to fly off to a foreign university or execs
zipping across the country and even abroad. Shouldn't the
blaming game start at home?
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