Garbage, city, city, garbage

I was caught in a rain couple of weeks back. So there I stood stranded next to a chai stall, as friendly car drivers swooshed past splashing wet mud from the roads at me.

I could start now at the insensitivity of people towards others, of motorists towards pedestrians and of pedestrians towards motorists, but I will not. So while I had to spend almost twenty minutes frozen in the middle of nowhere I was still not regretting it a bit because Bangalore rains are so charming. This was till I turned around to take a peak behind the stall. Here's what I saw....

Here was the testimony that generations of people had had chai at this very stall and left their cups as legacy. Nobody had bothered to clean it up or thought they added to the beauty of the scenic trees in the background. I would normally be extremely angry but this time I just felt so hopeless and exasperated. We keep our homes so clean and this is what we do to our cities and states. Why can't all shop keepers / vendors, especially those selling food items, put dustbins? And if there aren't none, how much time will it take for customers to walk to the nearest dustbin? 

I have visited a lot of cities and states in India --- the story is pretty much the same everywhere, disheartening and disappointing. 

But seeing the garden city slowly turn into a garbage city has been truly heartbreaking.