Yes, this is a post about me complaining (again!) about the the decaying of a city.

My city, Mumbai.

(A city by any other name smells as shitty!)

The BMC has spent about 30 crore rupees on the “Clean Up!” campaign, which they claim will help them reduce the garbage collection cost which currently stands at around 660 crore rupees a year. That's about 1.7 crore rupees a day; only on picking up the plastic bag you just threw out of your car, your cigarette bud, your Pan Masala packet and obviously excludes the human excreta from the footpaths of Jari Mari* because “it disappears automatically”, according to a BMC official.

Obviously, it is too difficult to carry a plastic bag from home to the grocery shop; or refuse a plastic and carry your pet bottles of aerated drinks in your hands.

"What is one plastic bottle or bag going to do? Isn't this just one of those NGOgiri thing that you are preaching which may just pay-off after all of us have died?"

Ask this to the guys who were stranded atop bus-stops and buses a couple of years ago and had to wade through chest deep water with dead buffaloes floating two feet away.

I just fail to understand how people can fight tooth and nail for their religions and castes, but not step up, waste 5 minute worth of 'mind-time', to save the city which ought to be preserved, if for nothing else, then for preservation sake.

Just for a second think of all the Parsees who gave up thousands of acres of personal land holdings for the betterment of those living in this city.

The other day I met this guy on the bus, who emptied a packet of Pan Masala/Gutkha/whatever-the-fug into his mouth and flung it out of the window. I immediately stood up and yelled “CHEEE!” and made a face like he I had seen the most shameful thing ever. (I overdid it, I must confess); And I kept doing that for about 15 minutes. Chuckles and disgusted eye contact galore.

I don't know what effect that will have, but I fail to understand why we do not leverage the driving force of the Indian masses to clean cities. “What will people think?”

Let's embarrass people who dirty your city. Some pointers:

1. The “CHEEE” - technique.

2. Gently approach the culprit and ask him, “Do you think Mumbai is clean?”

3. Pick up his filth (Obviously the most difficult, but by far the most embarrassing and effective), unless he has spit and cleared his nostrils!

4. Take a picture of the guy.

Obviously, all of this has to start ONLY after you have your backyard clean.

*Jari-Mari means: shimmering-shining

~~~~

If you need to find out what the administration is doing/not-doing about any issue, please feel free to contact me and we can draft an RTI query.