Train Windows are not the trash bin

Dear passengers,

               I am regular bystander who witnesses your train journey every day. The everyday movement of trains has become a part of my life. The train journey for me is a once in a blue moon event. The day breaks for us with the horn of the first train in the morning. The cosy rays of the mild sun plays hide and seek while the locomotive races through. The rays arrive at my door with a knock. They bring a gift every morning in the form of plastic bottle. The arrival of gifts continues throughout the day. This is a common story for my neighborhood where everyone is left with a pile of trash in front of their houses by the night.

                                                                        Image Source:  The caravan

 Why do you throw plastic bottles out of your window? Do you think that the world outside your window is a trash bin? I live next to the railway tracks where you rain these plastic bottles. How can I dispose them? How would you feel if someone throws garbage in your house every day?

                                                            The financial express

The playgrounds, the pastures, the water bodies and the temple lands, all these places have their modesty afflicted by the flying garbage. The dumps are the breeding grounds of vermin who are harbinger of typhus, malaria and dengue. Every year families lose their primary bread winners to these diseases. At times, our children play with this garbage, only to be not able to play ever again.

We are still not privileged to have piped water supply. The water bodies are lined up with dump and whoever uses the water suffer from disease. In summer, when the pond dries up, the venom of the metallic serpent is felt. After the first rain, a foul smelling chemical emerges on the pool. We have not learnt how to use it “the very gift of yours”, may be you can help in using it as a fuel to burn our lives.

                                                              Sources : Flickr

The cattle consume the plastic which gets stuck in their body. They drink the polluted water and suffer from disease. The milk given by them is not healthy either and I can`t feed my infant child who lost her mother to dengue the last winter. I also can`t sell this poisoned milk in the market as it will be hazardous for your child and I don`t want to be labelled a murderer. The cattle are not just beast of burden for us, when we lose a cattle, it is a loss of our income, nutrition and a family member.

You have traveled too far to tell you what had happened.

                                                            Sources: NDTV

For you, it might be a one stray plastic bottle. But the accumulation of hundreds of plastic waste has created Himalayan ranges of plastic throughout our vicinity. All our efforts to clean your mess go in vain as it continues to accumulate. The wind also conspires with the garbage as it brings back the garbage which we discard. You also ignore the threat of the projectiles ejected from the train. My uncle lost his eye to one such projectile.

You are educated and sophisticated.  You have traveled too long and too far to give you a solution. Rather, you should find a solution to this problem because the problem is yours as well. How can your life be healthy and safe from disease when those who supply the food and milk are not healthy. Today, I use the same water with chemicals to grow vegetables, use my same dirty hands to sow and the same diseased animals to milk which adds to your contribution.

                                                              Image Source: huffpostindia & thefinancialexpress

I don`t have any revenge planned against you for taking away my life, livelihood, happiness and my family away from me. You have become a part of this vicious cycle where perpetrators are also one of the victims.

If you want to enjoy the soothing sunsets, enchanting forests and snow capped mountains, stop using the windows as a trash bin else soon you will witness stinking chemical pools, garbage hills and barren lands.

 You cannot attribute our disease infested surrounding on us and put the blame on our unhygienic way of life. You have traveled too long to come back and question us. The best thing to teach your child would be asking him not to learn from you. I have already taught my children to live with it.

Image source : slideshare.net

Writer: Marvin Dilip D'souza

Co-writer : Adwait Singh Chauhan

*This is our first write up kindly excuse if grammatical or any such mistakes found.