I am sitting waiting for my train. Two elderly couple order coffe from the vendor who is busy counting his money.In fact he reluctantly gave them coffee. They enjoyed the coffee gleefuylly sitting on the chairs provided on the platform. They finished it and then got up from their chair and did the most unthinkable and unimaginable thing. They threw the disposable coffe cup right in front of them. They then went back to their chairs waiting for the train. And I am in for one more shocker. The train rambled in right on time. But still, the time beig announced was for the arrival of the time. There was no indication as to when it would depart.
Now there are two parts in the above situation. One is that of the elderly couple and the other is the dinasour of a train service, The Indian railways. Let us now take up the first part, the elderly couple. They had their cuppa which is very much ingrained in an Indian's daily routing, nothing wrong about it. The difference and the shock starts when the couple finish their cuppa. They threw the cup right on to the train tracks. They did this in auto mode. They did not give it a thought. They just thought that that was where the garbage had to go. Now they are waiting for a train which is supposed to arrive on the same track. For me this incident was a shocker. The event really caught my attention.
This happened while I was going through a blog post regarding slackware and how the author adored the way the distro is being maintained and gave accolades to its history. All of a sudden because of this incident my eyes started to scan that particular platform. I was not searching for anything in particular. To start with, I started looking for waste bins, I found one just beside the elderly couple's chair. I nearly went near them and wanted to advice them that they had a bin at arms length. I just paused for a moment and observed that the bin was full to its complete capacity. Now I searched for all the bins across the platform and to my shock, every single one was overflowing. I restrained myself from advicing the elderly couple. Now, I turned my attention towards the vendor. Having counted his money, he was belting out the beverage at a feverish pace without bothering where the used cups are going to end. Now, I extended my horizong to all the platforms, wait for it, It was the same across the 10 platforms.
The solution, which I thought at that moment was very simple. Dont allow the vendor to sell any more coffee until the waste bins are cleared. Imagine the uproar of the commuters at such a proposal. Thereby putting pressure on the vendors as well as railway personnel. Let us start keeping up cleanliness across all the public utilities. It is not happening with people on their own. It is better to put meaningful constraints on all the stake holders. The constraint should be on both the service provider and the service receiver.
Now there are two parts in the above situation. One is that of the elderly couple and the other is the dinasour of a train service, The Indian railways. Let us now take up the first part, the elderly couple. They had their cuppa which is very much ingrained in an Indian's daily routing, nothing wrong about it. The difference and the shock starts when the couple finish their cuppa. They threw the cup right on to the train tracks. They did this in auto mode. They did not give it a thought. They just thought that that was where the garbage had to go. Now they are waiting for a train which is supposed to arrive on the same track. For me this incident was a shocker. The event really caught my attention.
This happened while I was going through a blog post regarding slackware and how the author adored the way the distro is being maintained and gave accolades to its history. All of a sudden because of this incident my eyes started to scan that particular platform. I was not searching for anything in particular. To start with, I started looking for waste bins, I found one just beside the elderly couple's chair. I nearly went near them and wanted to advice them that they had a bin at arms length. I just paused for a moment and observed that the bin was full to its complete capacity. Now I searched for all the bins across the platform and to my shock, every single one was overflowing. I restrained myself from advicing the elderly couple. Now, I turned my attention towards the vendor. Having counted his money, he was belting out the beverage at a feverish pace without bothering where the used cups are going to end. Now, I extended my horizong to all the platforms, wait for it, It was the same across the 10 platforms.
The solution, which I thought at that moment was very simple. Dont allow the vendor to sell any more coffee until the waste bins are cleared. Imagine the uproar of the commuters at such a proposal. Thereby putting pressure on the vendors as well as railway personnel. Let us start keeping up cleanliness across all the public utilities. It is not happening with people on their own. It is better to put meaningful constraints on all the stake holders. The constraint should be on both the service provider and the service receiver.
