I still remember that sight very vividly. And whenever I remember it, I see a very sad facet of humanity - people hurt other people. The worst part though is, most of the times, it is for no reason whatsoever. At most of the times, it is uninitiated - maybe even done for kicks. Frankly, I have never understood why they do it.
I guess I was a thoughtful (in the manner of I-used-to-think, something, anything but something) guy right from the beginning. For instance, when it used to rain heavily (and that happens a lot in Dehradun), the sewage ducts would overflow and the whole road would get submerged in a stream of muddy water full of garbage. I distinctly remember standing at bauji's windowsill, watching the water flow, observing its movement and that of the garbage that would flow along in the stream. It used to fascinate me. I would sit for an hour or more maybe looking, through the window, at the water flow, thinking about it and maybe about many other things - who knows? I don't really remember now.
This overflowing stream of water, by the way, was a great entertainer. All of us kids in the lane used to make lots of paper boats out of all kinds of paper and in all kinds of looks possible. We would each sit at the entrance of our houses, outside the main doors (there was no entry gate - the houses were small, like individual apartments lined up along a road) and then race our creations in an effort to reach the big yellow garbage collection container that marked the end of the lane. One two three go! It was great innocent fun.
Come to talk of the big yellow garbage collection container, I am not sure whether you guys have ever seen something like this in your lives till date. Basically, imagine a small hut, similar to those we used to draw when we were really small, and instead of the door and the chimney and the windows, have four windows, two on each side along the slope at the top. That and four tyres to make it a movable structure. This was an excellent garbage collection system frankly - impressive in some respect too. The only downside however was that since there was one of these for maybe a hundred plus houses, it used to get full very quickly. Not all garbage would land inside this - and some would fall out, and that practically defeated the purpose of having the thing anyway. That, and the pigs that would come along in the heavenly location.
I was passing through the lane an year or so earlier and the garbage container was not there. And that had in a queer way, changed the look of the whole lane - it was able to achieve a kind of sub-urbane to urbane look, but definitely not the one I knew or the one that fitted. But well, change is a natural course of life and change happens. Can't challenge time, can we? After all, even I have changed so much - in fact, quite a good bit.
More...later...
I guess I was a thoughtful (in the manner of I-used-to-think, something, anything but something) guy right from the beginning. For instance, when it used to rain heavily (and that happens a lot in Dehradun), the sewage ducts would overflow and the whole road would get submerged in a stream of muddy water full of garbage. I distinctly remember standing at bauji's windowsill, watching the water flow, observing its movement and that of the garbage that would flow along in the stream. It used to fascinate me. I would sit for an hour or more maybe looking, through the window, at the water flow, thinking about it and maybe about many other things - who knows? I don't really remember now.
This overflowing stream of water, by the way, was a great entertainer. All of us kids in the lane used to make lots of paper boats out of all kinds of paper and in all kinds of looks possible. We would each sit at the entrance of our houses, outside the main doors (there was no entry gate - the houses were small, like individual apartments lined up along a road) and then race our creations in an effort to reach the big yellow garbage collection container that marked the end of the lane. One two three go! It was great innocent fun.
Come to talk of the big yellow garbage collection container, I am not sure whether you guys have ever seen something like this in your lives till date. Basically, imagine a small hut, similar to those we used to draw when we were really small, and instead of the door and the chimney and the windows, have four windows, two on each side along the slope at the top. That and four tyres to make it a movable structure. This was an excellent garbage collection system frankly - impressive in some respect too. The only downside however was that since there was one of these for maybe a hundred plus houses, it used to get full very quickly. Not all garbage would land inside this - and some would fall out, and that practically defeated the purpose of having the thing anyway. That, and the pigs that would come along in the heavenly location.
I was passing through the lane an year or so earlier and the garbage container was not there. And that had in a queer way, changed the look of the whole lane - it was able to achieve a kind of sub-urbane to urbane look, but definitely not the one I knew or the one that fitted. But well, change is a natural course of life and change happens. Can't challenge time, can we? After all, even I have changed so much - in fact, quite a good bit.
More...later...
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