It is always interesting to know about places that are not situated in our country. I have many friends who have visited or stayed abroad at least once in their life. Once they return to India the first thing they talk of is the lack of cleanliness in our country. Those countries are clean because people appreciate good surroundings and love to maintain it that way or the rules are so strict that they prefer not to break it. I have always wondered why our country is not clean! Many argue that it is not possible as we stand second when it comes to population. This may be true but there is another saying that many people collectively can complete the hardest of tasks in seconds.

In many households when the maid doesn’t come for a day, the people try to clean it on their own. They don’t feel ashamed of doing such a thing; after all it is their house. There are two reasons for this behaviour. The first being that they themselves want to be in a clean environment and the other is they want to show their guests that cleanliness matters most to them. People want their houses to be neat and tidy but when it comes to their country they show an indifferent attitude. It is a fact that only in a clean environment one can lead a healthy life.

The other day I read a news item. In a city the garbage collectors had gone on strike for a week. The whole city was stinking except for one colony. Then didn’t face any problem. All the houses in that colony used to collect the garbage in two different dustbins and tried to use minimum non-biodegradable things. One dustbin had the residue of vegetables, fruits and other biodegradable items. While the other had plastic bottles and other related items! The first dustbin was thrown into a pit for making manure. The other was neatly packed and kept in a terrace. Once a month it was disposed of to a vendor. The manure was used for gardening purposes and they didn’t have anything for the garbage collectors. This is one way of keeping a house as well as a colony clean.

When it comes to public places many feel that it is not their duty to keep it clean. They expect the officials to do their job as they are paid for it. Beaches and other areas that are frequently crowded by people are most of the time untidy. Many feel that adequate dustbins are not provided in crowded places, so they don’t have any other option but to throw soft-drink cans and other rubbish in the open. Very few think of carrying a garbage bag with them.

Socrates once said that in all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep. Frankly speaking any rule or regulation relating to any subject cannot succeed unless and until the people adhere to them. In many places, people take pleasure by breaking rules. One need not respect rules but can always respect the conditions which resulted in evolution of such rules. It is up to an individual to take good course of action, if not for others’ sake, at least for his own sake. In our country cleanliness is achievable if we collectively try to improve conditions, as it may not be possible for few officials to keep the whole country clean. According to the Bhagavad-Gita “Concerned alone with the upholding of the world, you should act. Whatever the best man does, others do that also. The world follows the standard he sets for himself.”

Rohini Renganathan
rohini_renganathan@indiatimes.com