Carry A Bag

One day, I was reading my Twitter timeline and saw one message retweeted by someone. It carried photographs of Prabhu Ghat of Varanasi, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s constituency. The ghat was looking divine in the light. If you have visited any religious place in India, you know how scarce attention is given to the basic level of hygiene.  It’s almost non-existent.

Here, this girl was posting photograph after photograph. For weeks she had been cleaning the ghats and had also motivated a group of youngsters to join her and this was the reason why the ghat looked so divine in the photographs. My heart swelled with pride.  I searched her Twitter handle and followed her immediately. She was Temsutula Imsong, the girl from Nagaland, who fell in love with the ghats in Varanasi and decided to clean them up.

Her work reminded me of another person, my own mom-in-law. She is an amazing woman in many respects. I have never seen her littering since I have become a part of her family. What surprised me most was when I travelled with her for the first time. It was a trip to a hospital.  Since she is diabetic, she can’t afford to remain hungry for long. She always carries some bananas, oranges, apples, sugar free biscuits or peanuts to eat to maintain her blood sugar level.  The hospital was far from our house. After a while she peeled an orange and I saw she put the seeds and peels in a small polybag. Whatever, she ate, its remains found their way into the small garbage bag. When we had tea, she even put the cups in the same polythene bag. When we reached home, she put that bag in the dustbin.

It may not sound much, but have a look at this diagram, what will happen if you ‘carry a bag’ with you.

• Ease Of Use:  You can always carry a small polythene or garbage bag with you in your purse or bag.  If you have more than one, you can share it with your family members or co-passengers.
• Affordability:  It’s super affordable.  You don’t have to belong to a particular strata of society to afford garbage bags. Encourage your family, friends and staff to carry a bag with them wherever they go.
• No Dependency on Public Dustbins:  We often crib about lack of dustbins in our country. Carrying a bag is a very simple solution to this. You won’t have to waste time on finding a dustbin, if you have a small carry bag with you.
• No dependency on Car Companies to Provide You With Dustbins:  You can easily, ‘carry a bag’ in your own transport or bus or taxi. You can encourage others to do the same.
• Lessen the Burden of Cleaning Staff:  Our municipal cleaning department is understaffed and overworked. So if we carry our own garbage and don’t litter our public places, it will lessen their burden a bit.
• Kids Can Be Initiated into This Easily:  When you are travelling with kids, just give them their own ‘carry bags’ or if they are too small, share yours with them. When they grow up, they will imbibe this habit and won’t litter our public places.

Please do carry a bag with you whether you are travelling to office, school, college or heading towards a holiday destination or going to watch a movie or a cricket or a  football match.