The building I live in, there is one lady who lives one floor above mine, on the 2nd floor. And the back side of our building from where all the service and gutter line goes, there is an empty plot. There are two vacant plots; maybe the owner has not planned to build anything there yet. Just next to the empty plot is another building which faces its backside to it.

Now the thing is, there is a habit, or rather say feeling which people think that it is their basic right to throw garbage wherever they see an empty plot.

If anyone is not living there, they claim it to be public property and throw garbage as they like. Since childhood, they have been taught that it is wrong to throw trash in their own house because it will become dirty, but it is okay to throw outside on the road and especially, on an empty plot because no one drives over it and no one walks over it.

Most of the people living in that area don’t even know who that empty plot belong to.

The owner may have taken this plot as their saving property, and since they live somewhere else, they don’t even know what condition that plot is, and people are only throwing garbage at it. And some throws it from upper floors itself. They don't want to come down, and because of that when it falls in the gutter line, there’s drain blockage. Seeing the dirt lying around, the best friend of garbage comes running with all his brothers and sisters. Yes, Pig! And we all know how clean they are. So they gather around there in a group and enjoy their party.

Or, there may be another possibility that the owner has seen the dirty plot, but they don’t care because it’s just an empty plot for them too and from starting, people are throwing garbage there so what can they say to them. Anyways, they don’t even live here, so if the environment becomes dirty due to this garbage and pigs, and the gutter line gets blocked, that's none of their business because they are not living here.

One more thing that will generate itself from these heaps of garbage and multiply themselves is none other than our mosquitoes. They don't do anything; they only spread illness such as malaria and dengue.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are about 390 million cases of dengue fever worldwide, and of the total no. of cases, 96 million require medical treatment.

India also saw a doubling up of cases of dengue from 2014 to 2015. 2018 isn't expected to be any better, and this has become a cause of concern for the country. More or less, same is the case with malaria.

Talking further, there is this lady on the 2nd floor. Her age must be between 55 and 60. She lives with her granddaughter who is in 6th standard. This lady has some knee problem because of which she usually avoids coming down by stairs (the building does not have a lift). But whenever she needs to go somewhere, she comes down, and that normally happens two times a day.

Now under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan initiated by our respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a garbage picker comes after every two days in the morning to collect the garbage. It always plays the song "Swachh Bharat Hamara, vada kar liya humne......”. So everyone, whatever garbage they had collected in their homes throw that in the vehicle.

But this lady on the 2nd floor never comes to throw her garbage. Rarely, we can see her granddaughter coming to throw it.

Now the question comes, where does all the garbage in her house go?

So one day, I heard some noises. The two ladies were abusing each other using low-level dirty words, frankly saying the below belt words and that too in a very loud volume, such that all the people living in that area can hear them. One of them belonged to the 2nd floor who was standing in her gallery facing that empty plot, and the other lady was standing in her window in the house, which was next to that empty plot.

I was wondering why these two ladies who are well educated, coming from a good family and belonging to a well-educated standard society, are shouting like this.

After some time, hearing all those nonsense words, everyone was able to spot the reason. This 2nd-floor lady has thrown some leftover food wrapped in a skinny plastic bag which could hardly bear the weight of it, and it got torn on that empty plot. The lady in the other house saw it all from her window. So she pointed it out to her at that very moment. But instead of accepting her mistake, she started shouting and abusing.

“This is not your plot, so you have no right to tell me anything, and from now onwards, I will throw my garbage here only".  She did not even stop on this and continued saying, “Just because pigs come here and eat that food, I throw it over here". Really? No madam, the pigs don't come here just like that, you are inviting them by throwing food there. Grow up!

Now, who is responsible here, that 2nd-floor lady who regularly throws her garbage on that empty plot or the owner themselves who let her do it? Maybe both!

This is the story of one empty plot. But there are many such vacant plots everywhere.

And the story is same, more or less, everywhere. We keep our houses clean because we live there. But what about our country? Don't we live in a country? Isn’t our country is our home? We must keep it clean.

Your ego is not greater than our country and our Mother Nature.

Mother Nature has created us, and our country has protected us. So, we can’t destroy it like this. Keep your city and nation clean, protect our Mother Earth!

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