Clean Chit by the Ugly Indians and the Star from Japan

In our country, mention the word – clean and we begin to link it with PM Modi’s initiative for a Clean India, a Swacch Bharat. Everyday we talk of our tax money that goes into this initiative. Each day we talk of keeping our surroundings clean. There are days we talk in frustration about the unclean surroundings. I wonder how many times we actually get up to make a difference. How many times do we think of doing something ourselves?

Cleanliness in India has been such a massive discussion since some time now, that from celebrities to NGOs and organisations that support social causes, have come up with numerous cleanliness drives to encourage people to make a difference. But how many of us really do? We keep talking of making a change, how many of us are really making a change?

All it took was for a man to get in touch with a citizen group by the name Ugly Indians to initiate a drive in the vicinity in the city of Bangalore, not to prove something but just with an intent to make a difference and contribute to a larger cause of living in a clean, happy surrounding to begin with.

Ugly Indians set out on their mission with smiles on their faces and encouraging people to join and volunteer, on social media.

To everyone’s surprise, it was a non-Indian, a Japanese who came forward to volunteer, to contribute, to make a difference. Kaedo, as her name goes, is a woman who is passionate, who is here in India on a work assignment with TCS. She is from Tokyo, Japan but as she is here, India is her home now. It took nothing for her to not bother about the situation here. It took nothing for her to just keep to her work, finish and leave back for her country. But she cared. She cared to share with us, what is probably instilled in them in their own country.

A special shout out for Nagendra, Jr Health Inspector, BBMP who led the transformation. Realised that a concrete team effort between BBMP and the citizens is crucial for the success of such projects.

As I saw this, I wondered that we are all so busy blaming the country, the Government, the BBMP, for not doing their work. We love to keep our homes clean but do we care as much to clean our surroundings as well? If a Japanese citizen could come here and call our country are own, then what stops us from treating our country like our own?  How each one of us has a capacity to make a huge change as an Indian, living right here. All we need to do is think of ways in which we could show the same zeal, the same enthusiasm that she did.

For a country with a population like ours, even if every Indian got up and initiated a small gesture towards keeping the vicinity clean, our India would be the cleanest country on the map. It is just the attitude which needs a tweak and the intent to be in place, it needs for us to have a heart in our place and to realise that probably it is country that is beautiful, while our minds and hearts aren’t.