We are dying a death of indifference and absence of consideration. The things around us are not as they used to be but that does not bother us. We feel safe for now and recuse ourselves from the questions about future.
The common apathy towards civic sense is the cause that prompted us to touch a subject that does not fall directly in our educational domain. It is however much related to what we call Curriculum.
We are accustomed to ignore what invites us to leave our comfort zones. These might be traffic rules or millions of other listed guidelines and SOPs. A large number is of those advisories that come with a 'should or must'. The half-gained knowledge of fundamental rights has made us believe that the fundamental duties are only rituals to be compromised.
Sometimes I am filled with so much rage that the heart boils to complain about the scene of irresponsibility. I do so via twitter and that too to the CMO Haryana mostly about street lights. The concern is that there are no timings to switch off - on. Sometimes these are not working and sometimes these are kept on all day. No one bothers and that bothers me. That bothers hundreds others as well but they might have given up to the treatise that "The whole system is pathetic and we cannot change it alone". I do believe them because once my attempts to set something right had landed me in the police station defending myself against a pure fake complaint by one of the leading corrupt Ransom-media gangs. That fiasco ended with a 'public apology' that of course I had to give to save my neck from the crocodiles. The whole system was their slave and there was nothing to safeguard the rationality behind that.
In the case of street-lights the same 'you don't understand' prevails over each resolution call they make. It was strange when the representative from the district administration left it to me as my responsibility to check there and then if the lights were still on. To remind them of their own salaried duty is a crime, as the Junior Engineer saw. For him, the deadlines were always extending and expanding beyond hope. The naked wires never covered; the starter boxes never came to bring safety; the timings never got corrected but the people assigned with this duty of maintaining infrastructure and amenities got well paid.
A complaint against an illegal construction's beginning had not received any response from the HUDA Estate Officers and even the CM Office. That tell the 'selective activism' for the sake of show-off. Yesterday the lights were on in a particular lane at 7am, then found in same state at 6.15pm and then captured bright the next morning at 7am. It is beyond understanding how can we be so blind. Either we give a damn about the small things or we want these to remain so that people learn to surrender to system.
P.S. BTW, the light were found on even on 16th May Evening 06.20pm.
In childhood, living in a small town and travelling by public transport most often, I felt humiliated when the bus drivers won't stop the bus for us even though the place was designated as a bus stop. I defined that as humiliation and an intention to enslave masses with continuous dejection. The agents or the employees may not plan it but given the power to 'reject' other people's rights, the fellows enjoyed that the same way we see colonisers in bollywood movies.
Here the villain is not the JE or the CMO Social Media Team or the HUDA officer or the administration or the police officer who did best to send shivers to spine when he first called. Later, getting a reference call, I was respected and understood but he had to admit that the corrupt dogs have caught hold of me and being from the ball-less media, they rule to court.
I spoke, I was silenced. Even in the context of street lights, I am apprehensive of what has made me famous. It sometimes turns out that they take it as their complaint.
Be it so, it is their duty and they aren't paid to decorate their houses or throw puns at people who bring to light civic issues. Primarily the initial lack and pertinent absence of civic sense has already it's wings and stomach all over. It's all dirt and irresponsible response system everywhere. Politicians and officers travel and walk daily through the same lanes and roads, but they do not see the garbage. The hoarding of 2018 International Gita Mahotsav is still there on the head of holy city's entrance.
People who cross through the flyover get to see this 'un-noticed' thing. And the ones who get to stand on ground to catch a bus or for any other reason, get to see the sequenced garbage drop-points. Pipli walls of the flyover are under seige. For a few hundred meters, it is 'what the hell' feel. I wonder how no one from the concerned or unconcerned department cannot see this.
Another picture to share. Scene 01: A cleanliness campaign just got over and photo-op also done. The volunteers are being served refreshments and food. The plates and glasses are made of thermocol.
Scene 02: A community serving - Langar- being served at a religious place. Devotees have thronged the place and have been waiting for their turn to taste the blessing. The thermocol plates are present here too.
Thermocol cannot be recycled and is not bio-degradable.
That's it.
Who is to blame?
The same way a bad lot of leaders is our own creation, this guilt of ruining our own civic life should stand on our shoulders. We waste water and mismanage the garbage. We honk and bear our own sons' love for stupid things. We ended sitting together and cancelled the sense of community. We failed to find alternates to many things that cause havoc around. We do not share a bond of concern for each other and that is why farmers fire the harvesting waste; street vendors selling sugarcane juice throw the residue to roadside; religious units use thermocol; masses honk; families waste water; street lights are kept on or off without requirements and lot more is done on the ground that we have ploughed.
The beginning of correction is no where to be seen. Better it would be if we start thinking and feel concerned of what have we done to the planet and life. We were supposed to be the custodian of future but we have come out to be the invaders.
No one killed us. We are actually alive and are living the last chance to put the things right. Late or early, you or me or us, someone has to talk about this. Mere talking to each other can also change things for good.
Let's see what gets corrected and who takes the first call to course correction! Teachers and Parents need to be awake. And when these two categories are mentioned, I believe, I mention almost the whole world to be honest to themselves.
