“Oh! Aah! Take the world and paint it red…”
Some denizens of Nagpur seem to have taken this song too literally. These people are found everywhere- roads, restaurants, hospitals, railway station, parks, courts, colleges and even schools! You just need to look around and you are sure to find someone spewing that disgusting red fluid from his mouth. Yes I am talking about the age old habit of people spitting here, there and everywhere!
Although Maharashtra has banned the consumption of gutka, people are still consuming tobacco in the form of kharra, khaini and paan. Even gutka is available to people if only they know where to buy it. The number of people getting addicted to these has shot up rapidly. The fact that even children are resorting to these is disturbing. And an aftermath of this is that our clean and green city is getting dirtier by the day.
People don’t seem to think twice before spitting on roads, on staircases, on walls, in toilets or for that matter any place they find. And the fact that they don’t feel even a smidgen of remorse is even more saddening. The roads of Nagpur as it is are not safe to drive. The numerous potholes, the faulty signals and the utter disregard for rules by the people make it dangerous to ply on our roads. And now to add to the woes one even has to look out for these people who spit at their own whim. This nuisance is not just on the roads.
Way back in standard tenth I used to go to a coaching class. The stairs of this building used to be dirtied by the tell tale signs of spitting. We had put up posters saying ‘Agar zaara si bhi insaniyat baki hai toh mat thuko’ but still it didn’t help. We had forgotten that humans have lost this humanity long time back. However we did come up with a brilliant idea and put some posters of Hindu gods and goddess on the walls. Miraculously, these ignorant god fearing fools stopped dirtying the walls! However we cannot go on putting up these posters everywhere, can we?
I think our NMC and the police finally need to wake up from their slumber and take definitive action. Police needs to be empowered to fine these offenders. NMC can help by providing proper spittoons at places so that people can use those to spew. But all these will be nothing till we change our own mindset. The day we see this menace as a problem is when we will effectively find some solutions to it. Dear offenders, please appreciate that road to development and better well being needs to be clean. You are dirtying it not just for yourself but also for others. Don’t you think a cleaner and healthier world will be a better place to live in?
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