The woman on the second floor,
Came out on her balcony,
Turned her handbag upside down,
And threw all the garbage on the ground,
Where's her dustbin? I thought, giving her a hard stare,
She went in with great ignorance almost saying I don't care!
It was a nice sunny afternoon, the town was choking with tourists,
They came as the hills were calling, but left behind something appalling,
Litter on the roads and in the lake, the mountains were sighing - for heaven's sake!
From a Scorpio stepped out the 'all-white' politician,
Threw the empty plastic bottle on the ground,
I looked at him in disbelief and muttered - What a pity, dustbin's right here, but can't be found?
A summer evening it was and folks were out for a walk,
Two young girls went to the ice-cream hawker by the roadside,
Took off the ice-cream wrapper, threw it on the road, and continued with their talk,
For them, it wasn't a big deal, or is it a big mental block?
While the hawker had a makeshift dustbin, why are most of us so thick-skinned?
It is right inside our homes or at times right in front of our eyes,
If not then why don't we just look around to find one?
What you do today you shall pass on to your kin,
Will there be a day when no one will need to ask - Where's the dustbin?
Tripti Bisht
