Oh, please. Car seat activism is not the answer for our trash
Iwas driving on the Dubai-Abu Dhabi highway when a car slowed next to mine and the windows rolled down. “Why don’t you please buckle up your son in the back seat? His life is as important as yours… Please!” the lady in the car reached out to me loudly, while her husband sitting next to her gave me a look that said ‘I totally agree with my wife’. I smiled idiotically. Then nodded a hasty, “Sure, Sure!” It is an old story. This happened some nine years ago. And it obviously did not make the news. Thank God!
Fast forward to 2018. Imagine I carelessly threw plastic on the road. Imagine the car that pulled up next to mine and the voice that screamed at me belonged to Bollywood beauty Anushka Sharma. Imagine her cricketer husband Virat Kohli shooting his wife’s moment of ‘social awakening’. Imagine my moment of embarrassment being the next viral thing on social media. Yes, the living, breathing, fire-spewing social media.
Thank God, it was not me!
But on any day of judgement, I will throw my full weight behind the young man who was on the receiving end of the “Why are you throwing garbage on the road?” rebuke. The young man who now the world knows as Arhhan Singh.
A careless act indeed, by his own admission. But my point is, in a country where littering is a civic syndrome, and mounting trash a national malady, why was Singh singled out? Why was he plucked out of the privacy of his car and hurled right into a social media controversy? This could not have been the first time Anushka has come face-to-face with a trash-throwing Indian.
If the idea was to start a ‘if you see something wrong happening like this, do the same and spread awareness’ campaign as her husband self-righteously posted, that was a bad start, Virushka.
You began a conversation on social media. But the only thing that wasn’t discussed was India’s menacing littering problem and the need to cut down on single-use plastic.
Since the couple has taken up cudgels against littering, I am sure we disgruntled Indians would be happy to cheer on and bat together for a ‘Swachh Bharat’. We will be happy if you used your collective might and took on our inept civic bodies who care a hoot about the mounting trash in neighbourhoods.
And of course, the Arhhan Singhs amongst us have learnt our lessons.But next time the couple sees someone throw trash, I wish they would unleash their Virushka star power to begin a ‘PickUpWaste’ hashtag.
Instead of car seat activism, I hope to see Anushka stepping out of her car and pick up some trash for her husband to post a video captioned, ‘Picked up some trash. Please keep your roads clean. It is our responsibility.’ That would be a better, effective way of starting a social discourse. And cleaning up our streets too.