Travel has always been an important part of my life and
hence taken me places. From villages which lack basic infrastructure to big
cities with blinding lights and fast lives still have one thing in common and
that is those personalities who should be rightly called the spit
personalities.
We live in a country which is run by an attitude dictated by
the term “Chalta hain”. No matter where we go or what we do we have this
attitude which is always screaming at the top of its voice. This laid back
attitude has been responsible for many mishaps and yet nothing changes.
Indians are a class apart, not in the wrong sense but the
way they think is definitely different. We love to keep our homes clean but do
not bother to look at the dirt collected outside the compound walls. The Indian
roads have a unique story to tell. Here roads are not just pathways connecting
areas and cities but they are used for multiple purposes.
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| Image source: thehindu.com |
Indian roads have been enduring since long the spits of
numerous Indians. This is the time when the road doubles up as a sink or a basin
where one can happily spit. Chewing betel nut leaves is a practice which has
been in for ages at the same time spitting out the leftovers on the road is
also a trend carried on for ages. These days the condition has aggravated, it
started off as spit as you walk and now its spit as you ride, drive or use a
public transport.
Only a person who has endured the pain of getting their new
or clean washed and freshly pressed shirt or kurta stained with specks of the betel
nut spit will know how annoying and dirty it feels. There are numerous occasions
when people end up spitting out and victimising the others on the road and the
road itself.
This is not just with the illiterate lot; even the well
educated ones join the ranks when it comes to spitting. Tuberculosis is a
disease which is endemic in India, its severity is known to many and yet the
spitting habit does not cease. When the swine flu scare hit the country almost
every one was seen wearing masks of different types, the surgical masks were
the commonest of them all. Yet, when one wanted to spit, they’d happily take
away the mask, spit and put it on again.
No number of workshops, television adverts and conscience
digging can help them mend their ways. The bent and blunt attitudes are doing
more harm than good. When will the Spit personalities learn to mend their ways is
the question.
- Nimisha Shirodkar
