Clear your mess, learn from Japan

This morning when I was taking a walk around my apartment building, I noticed the debris left behind by Deepavali celebrations. I wasn't surprised, considering how traumatic 2020 has been. People wanting to celebrate the occasion was perfectly understandable. However, the fact that the most basic clearing up was not done after the celebration, made the viewing unpleasant.

The small pieces of paper disbursed by the crackers are not easy to be cleared. But the cracker boxes that people carried from their homes, could have been taken back for safer disposal. At the very least, they could have been collated together and placed at a corner - instead of allowing them to be scattered around.

During the Football World Cup 2018, a group of passionate supporters from Japan travelled to back their country. Japan performed admirably well, but lost agonisingly to a star-studded Belgian side in the last 16. This after being ahead 2-0 in the first half. Despite the heartbreaking loss, the Japanese supporters won everyone's heart by clearing up the mess in the Stadium after the game. Not for a moment did they think, "I have paid for the ticket, I will watch the game and go home. Cleaning up the mess is someone else's job". That is not part of their culture. For the various setback the country has gone through over the years, aspects like these make them stand apart and keep growing. In the same tournament, the Senegalese crowd did this remarkably as well.

This is the ideal situation I would have expected. One of the parents looks at how messy the place is. They make an effort, regardless of how minimal it is, to fix it. Some other parent looks at this and follows. Kids usually imitate their parents, so they make an effort as well. This is how examples are set and will go a long way in how the next generation looks at the environment. This is precisely the mindset we need to work towards.

Just because we pay the monthly maintenance amount, it is never the responsibility of only the housekeeping personnel to keep the place tidy. Each one of us have a responsibility in helping them for the cause. As long as we have the "not my job" attitude, "Swachh Bharat" will continue to be only a dream.

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