Enemies of the Earth

Recently, R agreed to baby sit after he returned from his night shift for almost an hour so that I can go catch up on my exercise, which is quite thoughtful. The gym which I go to is a family gym, and after the recent renovation, a lot of new equipment has been added, especially my favourite - treadmills.

I am not very impressed by the filthy and dirty path I have to walk till the gym. There are a lot of street-side vendors who sell vegetables and after their day's work; they "mercilessly" leave their wastes strewn all over. There is a common garbage dumping container but I don't think most of them bother to dispose their waste there as they have to cross a bridge and then dump the garbage. I feel bad for the municipal workers who have to clean this rotten dirt on a daily basis.

There is a newly paved common bridge from the Railway station that connects to Dombivili East. During early mornings, it is sad to see how dirty it is. Here again, the vendors leave all the rotten spoilt left-over vegetables, fruits and even sacks and plastics.

There are planned and clean places in Thane and Mumbai. But, I believe that Dombivili is becoming unrepairable. No amount of hard work is going to make it look better as long as people think that the earth is their dumping ground.

Am I doing my bit to keep this city clean before looking at what others do? I really want to do more than what I am trying to do now. I feel guilty while getting things in plastic covers from the shops nowadays. So to avoid taking a plastic cover from the shop, I carry a jute bag with me and keep the stuff in that. I still feel that this is not enough - I need to stop all those practices that might harm the earth. We need to stop sleep walking and make this earth a better place to live. At least stop using plastic stuff - that will indeed make a great difference.