I have never been able to understand the paradox of Indians being filthy in public and cleanliness freaks inside their own homes. It's almost as if they get off an invisible leash the moment they step outside home. It doesn't take a minute for any one to throw an empty wrapper or a paper tea cup on the street/on a train platform/outside a moving vehicle. And it's a myth that only uneducated or poor people do this. I once met a guy, an engineer, a big shot in a MNC and yeah decently rich who said that littering is justified because "there are people who were paid to clean up the roads!" HUH! Well, isn't your bai paid to clean up your homes too?I have never seen anyone going about dirtying the house because some one was paid to clean it up!
The obvious answer is because there is a sense of belonging for one's home. You come back to it everyday. Roads, the train, platforms...they are some one Else's. We have never considered the country as ours and never understood that we as the smallest units of this country have a huge contribution to make in building a truly great Nation.
I think it is shameful that we accept to live in a dirty country but do not take the onus of keeping it clean.
