by “Be a Roman when you are in Rome” goes the famous saying, which is probably one of the most highly misinterpreted quote by Indians. The fact that, it encourages people to adapt to local living conditions and abide by its laws can somehow be misconstrued by us Indians to somehow live ourselves by the “The Indian Way”
So when you begin to ask , “How do I go about living this “Indian Way” of life, here are some key rules that you should remember before adapting to this approach:
- There are no rules that you should follow while in India. You may proceed to do anything as long as it is comfortable to you.
- Roads are not only or walking or driving vehicles. It’s also used for Littering, Spitting , Haphazard Parking, disposing of the leftover food ,defecating, burning effigies in lieu of campfire and Playing Cricket. Thou shall apply to Lanes, Streets, Main Roads and even National Highways
- Chewing gums, due to its sticky nature, has to be preserved post usage, by sticking on to public walls, train or bus seats. If either of the options seems to be unavailable, public platforms may also be considered as a sticking zone.
- “All the world’s a stage” quoted Shakespeare. But in India, All Lamp Posts are Bathrooms, we remarked in return. In case of emergency , thou shall be allowed to use any street corner, school walls, lamp posts to use a makeshift restrooms instead of looking for corporation bathrooms.
- If one sees a pile of garbage anywhere , even if it’s not necessarily placed inside a dustbin, thou shall also use the same location to dispose of one’s garbage on top of it or adjacent to it. Throwing the filled garbage bag from a distance, like a Basketball Free Throw may earn additional points
- Spitting is an art and it takes time to master the craft. Spitting can be done in any of the alternative ways.
– Thou shall attempt to spit from a fast moving car or bus that will have an outward tangent way of travelling and depositing accurately in the vehicles beside us or preferably another person’s face
– Paan Masala , Tobacco and Gutkhas can be used to do spray painting on walls, pavements,main roads or sometimes even on top of movie posters
– Once the above checklist is completed, thou shall deem to live the Indian way of Life
On a more serious note, the above points are some of the major highlights of what’s plaguing this otherwise beautiful country of India, which seems to attract millions of visitors across the globe
Local state governments has indeed taken several small initiatives in its process of cleaning up cities and villages, but we somehow continuously ignore the calls for cleanliness, flout the rules and end up dirtying our very own city , sometimes even our house as well .
I am seeing a fair amount of progress post the announcement of the Swachh Bharath Campaign by the Prime Minister, though wary of how long it’ll last or remain effective
Ultimately change should come within us and our own self-discipline to maintain cleanliness not only in our house but also our neighborhood our city and finally our country too. Let’s adapt a resolution to dispose garbage only in dustbins, never litter or defecate the streets nor spit on roads .
Distinguish degradable and non-bio degradable and separate the wastes accordingly while disposal
Lets aim for a cleaner india!!
Do check out this great initiative / campaign talking in detail about this issue : http://greatindian.timesofindia.com
