Let's Grow Up...

Every morning I take a bus from Bandra station to reach my office at Bandra Kurla Complex. There is a long queue at the bus stop, if buses do not come one after the other in time. Usually there are BEST officers at this bus stop to manage the queue and discipline. But one day they were not present. I was standing in the queue and bus came little late and stood little ahead than the place where it should have stopped. 5-6 people got in to the moving bus even before it came on the stop. Few more people who were not in the queue ran along with the bus and as soon as bus stopped tried to get in before all of us who were standing in the queue in the scorching heat for a long time.
Why are we such a lot? Why do we always need somebody to supervise us?
Didn’t those people who got into the bus without standing in the queue see us? Didn’t they know we were all standing in the queue from a long time and trying to maintain discipline? They should have at least respected that fact and should have waited till we all got in and then they should have boarded the bus. But the BEST officer was not present. So they took advantage of that fact and breached the discipline, broke the rules and didn’t care about the queue.
When would we get mature? I feel sad when we show apathy towards normal code of conduct in public. People spit anywhere on the roads, throw garbage, food and chocolate wrappers without thinking about it for a second.
These days there is a new trend in Mumbai. Every Monday night you will find lot many people on the S.V.Road walking bare feet individually or in groups. They start from Meera road, Dahisar, Borivali or Malad or Andheri or any suburb on western side and walk all the way up to Dadar to have darshan of Siddhi Vinayak. Now I don’t know how many of these genuine Ganesh Bhakts are. Many youngsters walk all this long distance only because their friends are walking. It is like a picnic for them. There are many noble people who serve these Ganesh bhakts water, ice creams, food etc. etc. at regular intervals along the entire path from Borivali to Dadar. They give these things in plastic cups. And the Ganesh bhakts after eating and drinking throw the plastic cups without thinking for a moment on the road. I have seen this many times and have got shocked to see their ignorance and apathy. Plastic is anyway harmful for the environment but the garbage they throw on the road makes our city dirtier and worse. I want to appeal the noble donors that they shall keep dustbins near their stalls where they offer the food, drinks etc. BMC shall also put dustbins at regular intervals on S.V. Road where people can throw garbage.
I think we all play some part in creating awareness about cleanliness and code of conduct at the public places. Teachers shall teach about it in the school and colleges. Parents shall talk about it with their children and they should first themselves follow the same so that their children can learn it from their behaviour. We educated people shall try to prevent ignorant and illiterate people from doing wrong in polite and good manner when we observe such thing at public place. Let’s all contribute towards this good cause and make our city and country a better place for living!