I hate people who throw litter on the roads. I also hate the ones which throw stuff out of railway trains on the tracks thinking that the railway employees will pick it up.

Unfortunately, I do not have the courage to ask them to stop. Which I think is the malady of a lot of people around us. What ever happened to the ‘Lead India’ campaign after the contest was over? No one has heard of those people since. A fantastic PR exercise by Times of India I would say…and nothing else. People were inspired for a bit by that senti ad of the boy pushing the tree trunk…the contest ended, the ad stopped and all of us were back to their mundane, complacent lives.

Coming back to the point, I really get scared to tell these furious looking women on the train that they shouldn’t be throwing stuff on the tracks. So instead I choose to make a face at them, make sure that they have noticed and quickly look away hoping that do not slap or fight with me.

Then a few days later, I hit upon a plan. Taking a lesson from Gandhigiri, I decide that I will carry a plastic bag with me and collect all the garbage from the passengers in the bag and throw it away when I reach my station. I am all gung-ho about this plan except that my memory fails me every time I board a train. I forget to carry a bag!!! And I cringe with disgust as people continue to throw stuff out of the train…and I continue to make faces.

But the other day, I was in for a really pleasant surprise. Instead of the usual porno graffiti and obscene doodles on the walls of the train, someone had actually written a message stating that people should carry a plastic bag to throw their garbage and desist from throwing garbage on the tracks. Thank god someone else thinks like I do…otherwise, I am too much of a chicken to actually voice my opinion.

Hopefully, the next time I board I’ll carry a bag for garbage. And I hope someone who is reading this does it too. I mean, for how long are we going to expect 'those' people to do something about things when in reality, we are 'those' people? Littering and dirt is just one of our very small problems. It’s a small step I know. But some day, when I see clean tracks, railway stations and roads devoid of garbage, I’ll breathe easy knowing that there are people who care about this lovely country as much as think I do...and I am sure, bigger things will happen.