Garbage, garbage, everywhere...

While the nation is celebrating  the successful testing of ASAT Missile Shakti, and the PM himself is urging the countrymen to feel proud of this very significant milestone in the history of independent India, our neighborhood is reeling under the weight of piles and piles of garbage being dumped indiscriminately by the roadside. We, as a community,  called on the collector's office to take action against the involved party. However, because of the burden of  the pending elections,  the office was unable to help. When we approached the Panchayat, we were informed that the municipality has given the contract of disposing off the garbage to an NGO called 'Hand in Hand'. It turns out that Hand in Hand is a Swiss award-winning organisation, dealing mainly with issues pertaining to women empowerment, child labour and solid waste management. The person coordinating the  act of dumping, sorry, I mean solid waste management, explained to us that the idea was to fill the natural rainwater harvesting gully by the roadside, with a mix of mud and unsegregated garbage.  He had come armed with a JCB veihcle, and before we could say something, he jettisoned a whole heap of stinking rubbish right in front of our eyes. When asked why he did that, he looked rather flustered, "since 6a.m. in the morning, I have been looking for a place to unload...''

And that's how the story goes.We live in a beautiful semi-wooded rural area, but, for years now, we have had an ongoing battle with incessant dumping by unknown elements in every little patch of green available. 

So, Mr PM, I wish you could give us some  better reasons to be proud of our motherland...And I wish your government had not slashed the budget assigned to the solid waste management by almost half... 

But, let us not mar this moment of national glory by wallowing in the mounting mounds of garbage. For, as our honorable PM likes to point out, we are now part of the elite club of superpowers.