Sunday, August 17, 2014

Juhu beach or garbage bin.time to think ...

       " Long run at Juhu beach on Sunday ". A message from our coach excited all us runners. Maybe all of us wanted a change from our usual place. Sunday 5:30 am we all meet at our usual place and car pooled to our destination ,all excited about our pleasurable run.
        We reached the beach and were welcomed by the beautiful site of the sea it looked soo beautiful and serene. The high tide and big waves hitting the shore was a pleasant sight ,till we saw the shore . We all were in for a big shock, we all could not believe our eyes . The beach was filled with nothing but garbage I didn't even know if I could really call it a beach I felt it looked more like a garbage landfill. As we were already there we decided to start our run ,we did our warm up and started running . What came ahead was more shocking ,there were tons and tons of plastic everywhere ,so many different type of garbage varying from plastic bag ,flowers ,bottles ,wrappers , cushions animal and human excreta yucks ,there was just garbage ,what we saw everywhere . The tides were high but my spirits was low and my OCD issue hit the new height. Running became the most difficult task for me ,it was not a pleasurable run but a stressful one,somehow I just could not handle the sight that welcomed me. Everytime I met other runners each had a sad and disgusting expression and only words that came out from everyone's lips were " Oh My God" . I don't think god himself could help us. The cleaning crew was a welcoming sight oh it's felt so good to see them clean our mess, yes I call it our mess after all we are the ones who create this mess ,we humans are so ignorant we think by throwing our garbage in the sea ,it will disappear,forgetting Mother Nature never keeps things that's not hers she always returns it back to us ,but we still do the same again and again and again. Today I was reminded about what my daughter vanshika once told me when we were discussing about the dirtiness around our city. She says we Indians are very spoilt people and very pampered people,we have house helps to do the cleaning of our house the housekeeping staff to do the cleaning of our surrounding ,we have drivers and car cleaners who clean our cars, we people are so used to others doing our work that we always think wherever we throw garbage there will always be someone behind us cleaning it and that is why we so openly litter while in other countries they don't have help so they do their own work so not littering is a habit with them,unlike us . The sad part is we call ourselves children of Gandhiji ,a man who believed we must do our own work not expect others to do it which he followed till his untimely death. Today when running I wished he would have made it a rule for us Indians ,maybe then today we would have made it a habit not to expect someone else to clean our mess .Sadly this bad habit of ours is spoiling our Mother Nature.
     I continued my run no today I couldn't call it a run I walked ,dodging the garbage and looking around at people walking ,children playing ,some enjoying the sound of the sea and some like me just dreaming one day we will see our beaches clean and just clean plain clean.....bas itna sa kwaab hai....

2 comments:

  1. Yes Sushma, I too was disappointed after watching the litter spread on the beach side.

    Red patches of gutkha stains on the streets and sidewalks, packets of biscuits and chips strewn across train compartments and railway tracks, leftover food, half-eaten fruits, and egg shells spilling out of roadside garbage bins have given Mumbai a notorious reputation. In Mumbai, public spaces are treated like massive open trash cans. A person who recklessly tosses a chocolate wrapper out of a rickshaw here will think a hundred times before doing something like that abroad.
    It will take longer to educate the litter louts.

    I must say you are doing good job by initiating cleanliness drive.

    Kudos to you!!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you ...hope people of India start loving our country maybe then we will start respecting our cities and keeping our surrounding clean....

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