I was waiting to be collected from a well known shopping precinct. I stood on the corner by a small kiosk that sells sweets and tobacco pouches, both popular in India, and manufactured "singly" so people can afford them. The trouble with that is that men buy them, tear them open and throw the packet on the floor. The kiosk man was busy cleaning the patch in front of his kiosk. He painstackingly moved motorbikes and shifted chairs and swept all the rubbish into a nice pile and then ...he swept it under the parked car right next to the kiosk !
A young man finished his Sprite and simply threw it on the floor as he walked to his motorbike. I was too stunned to protest but patience is a virtue here and as I stood waiting, a woman with a worn and tatty sari came along carrying two plastic bags full of plastic bottles and plastic cups. She scooped up the plastic bottle and hey presto instant recycling.
On my way home I saw a mum lifting her toddler onto a wall and the toddler pooped in someone else's garden.All part and parcel of the state's failure to provide ....
Hence the well known acronym NIMBY. Don't for a moment think this is India's problem only.It happens wherever that selfish gene takes over and shows a lack of responsibility to the community you live in. In India's case one could say there are mitigating factors perhaps because of the states failure to provide.It is all a question of education and collective consciousness but you would have thought that 60 years was long enough to get this sorted.
Can you guess what it stands for ?
