World within Wastes

Waste is any material which is no longer useful as it has served its purpose. It is unwanted materials and objects that people have thrown away. It is often also called trash, garbage, rubbish, or junk. The growing amount of waste produced in the modern society has adverse impacts on both environment and humans.
You guys probably must be thinking that this blog is about the rant about the environment and its effects on earth blah blah... No. Surprised? You should be. Then what has she written anyway? And what new information will I get to know? You must be thinking I am going to speak about insects and microbes which resides in waste disposal sites. Erm... You're wrong again. Well, I can tell you one thing which is my brain produces thoughts which aren't even near to conventional because I have a philosophical perspective for every damn thing.

Now coming to the point, I am going to talk about the people whose lives revolve intentionally or unintentionally around waste disposals or dustbins. In india, the concept of a clean surrounding is only a myth. The clean places which we get to see is only an illusion because only 1/4th of the our duty is being fulfilled. Since I stay in Delhi and have stayed in West Bengal, I can tell what happens to the waste which gets collected from the cities. They are all taken in trucks to outskirts of the cities and dhussh..! "dumped". All our wastes get dumped day after day, year after year forming a mountain of waste with a stinking smell of its own. The eagles soar the sky all the time and has become a common sighting.

But these mountains fill some stomachs and gives things from which some make their homes. Who are those people? Those people make the 30% of India's population who are recognized as "below poverty line". The kind of people who lives in slums, "jhopras", sidewalks, under highways, near your locality dumps. The locality dumps fascinate me more. I know it's a strange thing to be fascinated by but it does. Why? The contradiction surrounding it overwhelms me. Have you seen the people who passes the dustbins going to their destinations? They close their noses with their hands or handkerchiefs and walk as fast as possible to move out from there; to get a fresh breath of air, to stop the burning sensation in their noses.

Did you ever happen to glance over the family/ies which resides there itself? The stinking smell which burn our noses, annoys us, makes us curse on everything is the daily breath of air which they inhale. Men, women, children are living their lives right beside the dustbins. Their source of income is the dustbin itself from where they search for the reusable items, collect them and sell to get money to fill their stomachs at least one time in a day. They are wearing old clothes day after day, residing in the dirt which we call "unhygienic". They don't get a 3 time meal and bed to sleep let alone ambitions and bright futures. They don't have a rock solid roof above them which can protect them from nature's wrath or the diseases sprouting near the dustbins. With their feeble, unhealthy, weak bodies and depressed minds (probably more than us) they continuously strive to make it through the day and show love in their own way. Their eyes filled with sorrows unknown and complicated than us remains silent in such a vast world without any kind of helping hands for them.

A world whose population is growing constantly in millions major problems still remain unsolved. Even if we don't have the capacity to solve them on a larger scale, we can do our small bits. If we try to see and realize the bigger picture and how lucky we are, then we will always be contented with ourselves. And trust me people like us we have "hope" a thing which is found rarely so savour and utilize it while we can.

Picture Credit: Muhammad Shaikh
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