Clean Up!

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Azad Maidan was littered with empty juice containers, used paper plates and leftovers of discarded food. The organisers as well as the audience had desecrated the very place that was used to consecrate lofty words.

A few years ago, the Tibetean community in Goa organised a day long workshop meeting to deliberate on their predicament of being denied their rights and dignity in Tibet. No sooner the event ended, the volunteers began to stack up the chairs and clean up the hall. When somebody said that they need not do so as they had paid the rent of the hall, one young girl calmly insisted, ‘we paid for the use of the hall, not to abuse it!’

The statement reverberated in the mind while moving across Panaji’s Azad Maidan. It was littered with empty juice containers, used paper plates and leftovers of discarded food. The trash was the residue of the previous day’s gathering to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of Swami Vivekanand. The organisers as well as the audience had desecrated the very place that was used to consecrate lofty words.

Such scenes are seen at most public spaces in India. But it isn’t as if all are at fault. Trekkers, astronomers, nature lovers and others do display their sense of responsibility. They not only refrain from dirtying the place, they pick up the litter and ensure appropriate disposal of the trash. In fact, they take pride in ‘cleaning up’!

Lofty words at community gatherings mean nothing if we do not walk the talk. Our worthiness is defined by a responsive sense of responsibility. It is not enough to tread the trail, we must be better at leaving our path in a better way than we found it to be. Like that young Tibetean girl we must ensure that we do not abuse our environment, our community space and our common world. We must move beyond self-centred attitudes to a responsible behaviour.

Do not abuse the public space, take care...

Let’s BE BETTER at the clean-up out there...