Attitudez!!

As I was walking on my way to work this morning, I heard a splash barely few feet from where I was. On looking I saw what is now a usual sight for everyone - some guy eating tobacco and spitting it on the middle of the street. I went ahead and gave that guy choicest of abuses as people nearby looked on. The man said that he was sorry but looked positively unrepentant. I just walked away. But as I look back, I realize how careless we as a society become. We are completely OK with people defacing, urinating and even spitting on the street. None of us seem to bother or as much as give this action a second thought.Even though we know that this whole thing is unhygienic, unsanitary as well as unhealthy, but we all take it in our stride. One could argue that we are a country of poor people and many of us do not have access to even basic of sanitation facilities. Further bulk of our population stays in slums that are unfit for human beings. Expecting them to bother about hygiene is too much.
Right, but what about people like us, the educated folk? Don't we owe something back to this city? Have we stopped caring at all? It is this apathy that is appalling then the action itself. How many times have we stopped our kids from littering on the streets. Or how many times have we loitered on the streets ourselves? Countless times. This needs to stop - we need to drastically change our attitudes and stop spitting and loitering on the streets ourselves before we can ask others to do the same.
Ideally I would have loved to have drawn comparisons with developed countries and comment on how people there are 'civilized' and do not even dream on loitering or spitting on the streets. They even clean up their pets' mess. But surely that comparison is flawed and akin to comparing apples and oranges. Our economic and social situation does not merit a comparison with any other country in the world.
However what we do need is a change in our attitudes - change that comes from within. Unless we do that - India - and especially Mumbai will continue to look like one big garbage dump.

To Kill a Mockingbird

I recently finished reading the book "To Kill A Mockingbird" written by Harper Lee. This book has been on my to-read list since a while now and I am glad I finished it. Revolving around the post civil rights period in the Southern USA, this book touches upon racial tension and prejudices that were a part and parcel of life in the South.

The story is told on behalf of a young girl named Jean Louis Finch, nicknamed Scout. Scout and her brother Jem, along with their friend Dill who comes from Mississippi to spend summers with them, go through many experiences on their way to growing up. Scout and Jem live in a small town along with their father, Atticus and their 'Coloured' housekeeper Calpumia. Scout and Jem have a normal childhood till their father, a lawyer by profession is assigned a case of defending a black man from a charge of raping a white girl. It is here when Scout and Jem get to experience the deep prejudice and hatred among their white villagers for the blacks. They have to face some tough time at the hands of their classmates and villagers in general because their father is involved in defense of a black man and they are deeply disappointed when the jury convicts the black man even though the kids can clearly see that he is innocent.

This is a very well written book and though the subject touched by the book is complex in nature, it comes across as surprisingly easy read. The author's attention to detail and descriptions of the surroundings is amazing and made e feel as if I was a part of the book. I would really recommend this book to all the lovers of classic fiction.

Sachin V/s Shiv Sena

It all started with a not so innocent answer to a media scribe's question. On being asked about what he felt about the current debate in Mumbai about Marathi Manoos, India's batting maestro replied that he felt that Mumbai was a part of India, and though he was proud of being a Maharastrian, he was an Indian first. This response irked Shiv Sena's supremo Balasaheb Thackeray and he verbally attacked Sachin in a editorial of Saamna, the Shiv Sena's Mouthpiece. He explicitly asked Sachin to mind his own business - i.e. playing cricket and leave the politics to politicians. He further went on to comment that Sachin had hurt the sentiments of Marathis.

In my opinion this is absolutely RIDICULOUS!!!. Sachin most probably just spoke out what was going on in his mind and his comments had no politics behind it. Shiv Sena's and Balasaheb's reaction is nothing but just a cheap gimmick to grab some eyeballs and we should not let them succeed. Who has given parties like MNS and Shiv Sena to take up the cause of Maharastrians. Shiv Sena claims to be the heart and mind of Maharastrians, but the results of recent elections held in Maharashtra show what everyone thinks of Shiv Sena. It is just a dying party who is struggling to survive. Instead of giving them any prominence whatsoever, media should probably just give them enough rope so that it may end up hanging itself.