By Donboklang Dohling
In this day and age, when the world is fast becoming a global village, and the television and the internet continuously provides people with the latest news, views and ads-you get to know that the cell phone you bought just five weeks back is now “passé” and you watch a television coverage of an event, unfolding “live”, in front of your eyes, but, two continents away-you would naturally expect the people living around you in this part of the world to embrace and imbibe most of the good ideas, innovations and sophistications of the ‘more-advanced rest-of the-world’. Let me state, for the record, that, in this, the people of my beloved Shillong, the erstwhile “Scotland of the east”, confound me.
Things People Do!!
As the words of a certain song go: “Let me count the ways…….…..”: I fail to understand why civilized people would throw their garbage by the roadside, in a drain, into a conveniently-nearby stream, or, sometimes, pack their garbage in plastic bags and carry it with them in their car and when passing by an odd dustbin/garbage bin, toss the whole lot out the window, never caring if the garbage went anywhere but into the bin! Small wonder then, that you see the garbage bin half empty with mounds of garbage all around it! Then there is the person who goes for a daily evening walk, although, not without a well-packed and neatly tied-up plastic bag in either hand. His route? The straightest way to the nearest garbage bin. You might say: “Kudos!!” I say wait and watch; looks can be deceptive, you see. He passes by the bin, looks around him and………….. “Whoosh!!” go both the bags, both landing a few feet away from the intended target. But, he is too dignified to pick up garbage bags (even his own!), so he walks away fast-and almost stumbles as he looks around yet again-heaving a sigh of relief that no one had seen him!
By the way, during one short trip out of town, I chanced to pass by a lovely valley beside a forest, so, I stopped my car to exercise my legs and enjoy the beauty of nature. As luck would have it, I chose to park near a lively family of five, who were polishing off their lunch-packed in large plastic bags bearing the name of my favorite restaurant in town. I nodded politely in their direction and walked past. As I entered the bounds of the forest, I saw many areas littered with empty plastic food packets, cigarette stubs, some empty liquor bottles and very eco-unfriendly “disposable” plates and glasses, and even some plastic bags full of rubbish. How I wished there were quite a few garbage bins in places like this. I also wished people would not dispose of garbage this way!! Having had enough of the scene, I walked back to my car. Imagine my surprise when I saw two big crumpled plastic bags, knotted up and lying side by side near my car, both the bags bearing the name of my favorite restaurant in town!
Total Lack Of Civic Sense
I should mention that I used to wonder about my next-door neighbors and how, for two such highly-educated people, they could display such a total lack of civic sense. One fine day, they offered me a lift in their car and I accepted. On the way, one of their children, having cleaned out a packet of potato chips, handed the empty plastic packet to the father, who, much to my astonishment and dismay, without a thought, tossed it out his car window! I didn’t dare imagine what kind of example he sets his children.
I made another interesting observation. A short distance from a garbage bin in one particular locality, there is a corner, at a bend in the road, where people sometimes throw garbage. To stop this nuisance, the locality elders put up a sign there that said: “Don’t throw garbage here. Violators will be fined Rs. 500”. The sign was a sure attention getter!! Nowadays, people regularly dump their garbage right next to the sign! Made me think that the sign should have been placed on top of the garbage bin instead!
Let’s take another instance of our very own golf course, a famous landmark and tourist destination. It really makes me sad to see all kinds of rubbish-empty cigarette packets, chocolate wrappers, potato-chips packets, plastic cups and water bottles, crumpled paper sheets of various sizes courtesy the ‘aloo-moori’ stand, even empty beer and liquor bottles-strewn all over and around the lush green grass; with things being worse on Sundays and holidays. When I was young, I remember the cleanliness of the whole course, with the people in general, both young and old, being very particular of throwing rubbish only in designated garbage bins. Makes me wonder where that civic sense has disappeared; or, is it that we no longer care for cleanliness and the spick-and-span look? Yes, I know of, and I’ve seen, homes, nay, mansions, with floors you can eat off from and their owners looking like they just stepped out of a fashion magazine, not a single hair out of place and not a speck of dirt on them. They could have been role models of personal hygiene and cleanliness, but, alas, I’ve seen the same people tossing empty cigarette packets, potato-chip packets, or, empty beer bottles, soft drink cans out of their car windows as they glide by in their glitzy latest-model luxury cars, heads held high, as if it is the latest mode of waste-disposal. It was countless number of times that I wished for the courage to pick up their trash and dump it all back in their vehicles, but, I know for sure, that, should I attempt such a thing, I would be very firmly, and in all probability, violently, put back in my place! How I wish they could appreciate the need to keep their surroundings as clean as they could keep themselves and their homes!
Conclusion (Who Is Responsible?)
This brings me to my concluding observation. One day I sat down and asked myself a few questions like: “Are you some kind of garbage watchdog?”, “What gives you the right to criticize how people dispose of their garbage?”, “Do you stop for one moment to consider where your own garbage goes?”…….Whoa!!! Hey! Stop there! ……. “What about my own garbage??”…….. I have never really considered the matter of my own garbage. I took a sudden real hard look at myself and seriously considered the matter, and equally seriously, did not like the conclusion that I came to……
I do not litter, I am very conscientious about where and how I dispose of my garbage, but, all along, I never realized that I was unconsciously doing exactly what I hated other people doing: You see, even with the care I had taken, my garbage left my house only to litter up another place, all the time emanating a foul stench while laying there to rot. This shocking realization made me more than a little bit sad. Suffice it to say that I do not blame myself completely for it all. I was partly to blame, though, for electing my representative to the Government. He is the one responsible for monitoring (and supposedly pursuing the improvement of) the functioning of the Civic Services Board (by whatever name it is called) and it’s auxiliary agencies, which are, in turn, collectively responsible for collecting the garbage-mine included-and dumping it all at one of the foulest-smelling, biggest naturally-occurring open-air garbage bins at the other end of town, right beside the National Highway passing through it. What a way to greet people entering Shillong! Methinks there should be a big sign there, saying, “THIS IS A PART OF WHAT USED TO BE CALLED THE SCOTLAND OF THE EAST”!!!!!!
(The writer is a concerned Shillongite and a social thinker)