I am an outsider here. I have perspectives that dont belong to this place. I see things were there is nothing and miss the subtleness in things that you experience only with years of observations. I have lived most of my life in India, interspaced with study and travel to a few countries. India is mad, you dont understand how things go around, but they sure do! Probably thats where my bizzare and random ideas link together.
I moved to the UK a few months ago to pursue my Ph.D. Everyday is a sort of a mental compare and contrast with my ideas of society, relationships, markets and structure. Sometimes, like this weekend two interesting alien things happen to me and its a very weird sense of 'Eureka'. I havent dicovered anything new like 'displacement' but somehow another piece in the jigsaw just fits.
These are my very early days of driving in the UK and last saturday as I left to get my weekly groceries I saw the air pressure in my front tyres needing attention. I stopped over at a gas station and hung around the air meter trying to figure out what I am supposed to do. People back home just stood with long air hoses and went about checking your tyres. They said 'its done madam', you tipped them and zoomed away. Here, I was fiddling with something that didnt even look high tech, just plain dumb. As I was about this tin box, a very old lady somehow figured that I could do with some help; explained, that I need to put in a 20p coin in it to bring it to life. Hmmm interesting, I did just that, checked the air, thanked the lady and zoomed away. My thoughts still hovering around the air meter. So, you actually pay to get air in this country. Super!
The art of supermarket shopping is now more visual than thoughtful. As my hands picked the required things and dropped it in my cart, I went on a quick holiday to some place sunny ( yeah its one of the things people in the north west have in common. We are all on a holiday some place sunny until someone speaks to us). I was still in my bikini when I noticed the till point lady very dutifully filling my purchases in plastic carry bags. That was precisely when I snapped back to present tense and politley declined, as I always carry my backpack that fits food enough for me. That was it. My Eureka moment. So, you dont pay for plastic carry bags in this country ( well, atleast not overtly). Super!
Seems like I am adamant to not get to my point. Here it is then. We cant stop talking about the enviornment, global warming, the planet etc etc. All day on the radio, television, blogs thats all there seems to be out there. We even do our bits individually for the sake of our kids perhaps. We seperate our thrash, we bike to work, no longer buy 4x4's. But, we dont give a moments notice about our plastic carry bags. We are very happy about the 3 arrow circle on our cola cans and then merrily ask the shop keeper to double the bag to bear the weight of those same cola cans. Why cant we make it mandatory to buy plastic bags? Well, I see why corporates don't want to seperate the cost and want to make you pay implicitly, so that you carry their advertisement for free as you sashay along the high street holding them. Interestingly, These are the same business houses who love to scream from rooftops when 0.02% of your bill goes to a charity.
So what grand structure is this to pay to get air and not to pollute the enviornment?
When are we really going to stop making the media spoon feed us on what they assume is the right conduct, a common sensical point, the obviously deducable? All we need to do is rethink the strategies we as a collective endorse rather than doing little bits on our own. I dont disagree that every small gesture counts, but something as obvious as 'sell carry bags' so that people stop and think before they consume more than they should rather than go all the way round by just recycling them.
The one thing that would have prevented a lot of people from dying in the floods that hit maharashtra state in India in july 2005; where more than a 1500 people died, was if our sewege was not blocked with plastic carry bags. But, perhaps I am an outsider in this country.... well, all I know is that I am not an outsider on this planet.
The one thing that would have prevented a lot of people from dying in the floods that hit maharashtra state in India in july 2005; where more than a 1500 people died, was if our sewege was not blocked with plastic carry bags. But, perhaps I am an outsider in this country.... well, all I know is that I am not an outsider on this planet.
1 comment:
Nice article. But I have a question. Where in India do you pay for the carry bags? Or have I misunderstood something?
And oh... I really liked your analysis on Maharashtra floods.
Post a Comment