The Uncivilized Moderns

I was standing in front of fourth block of MIT hostels which is by the way the ladies hostel of my college with Shubhra (My sister). A group of maybe second years comprising 4 girls and a boy were standing and sitting near the gate. All laughing, cracking jokes and stuff. Everyone could pass by them without any notice and they would appear normal MITians. By their dressing sense you could say, they were all rich daddy's brats. Girls in all fashionable tops and thigh length shorts and the boy in low waist jeans and loose t-shirt. All signs of modern cosmopolitan lifestyle. You could look at them and expect them to be the upper middle class if not the upper ones with all the social qualities and characteristics one could possess.

They could've passed even my eyes if they hadn't done something which happened in the next five minutes.

A girl ("in her shorts and top") with a bottle of lime juice started walking towards the campus store which was across the road. When she reached the middle of the road, approximately near the divider, the bottle in her hand fell on the ground and broke with a loud churning noise. It caught everyone's attention.

The girls at her back started shouting about some guy she must be thinking about or something which i could not figure out. Now i dont know whether it was an accident or she deliberately let go of the bottle. But my guess would be that it was a deliberate action. Although she was going to put that bottle in the empty bottle crate kept near the store. She turned back and went to fetch another empty bottle which she probably had to dispose off in the crate. She kept the bottle back and since they were shouting, the matron from the block came outside and asked them to step inside as it was almost around 11pm. One of the girl started arguing with her that she was not going anywhere and they were going to be near the gate. The matron started telling about the recent bike accident that led to sudden unfortunate demise of one of the final year architecture girl. After some time, they went inside with me still looking at them. All of this happened but no one, not even the girl who slipped the bottle, bothered to move the broken chunks off the road and dump it in the dustbin.

AND THEY CALL THEMSELVES MODERN AND COSMOPOLITAN AND CIVILIZED.

I'LL TELL YOU WHAT THEY ARE. THEY ARE UNCIVILIZED,UNCULTURED, "STONE AGE CLOTH" WEARING TYPE, "I AM COOL BECAUSE I TALK IN RANDOM ENGLISH" THINKING BUNCH OF MORONS WHO DON'T EVEN WANT TO CLEAN UP THEIR OWN MESS.

At first, i started walking back to my bike but then something inside me started twitching that it could not be left lying there. Someone could get hurt. So i turned back. Me being in my final year was a little furious with the matter. I've lived in this place for four years and love it for its weather and cleanliness. I could not figure out what i should do. I thought of going and telling them that she should pick up the glass and throw it in the dustbin but someone who could shout at an authority like the matron would never spare me with remarks like "Why are you so bothered?" or "What is your problem? The cleaners will pick it" or something like that. And i could not risk an argument with them because of the recent developments in the college. I might get a Disciplinary Committee proceedings in last few days of my stay at college. Suspending seniors for arguing with juniors for any random reason has become a particularly common practice in my institute. Overall, i could not store the courage to go tell them to pick up the garbage, so i found out another method to show them their mistake. I started moving towards the glass and picked them up and threw it in the dustbin. But by the time i threw it, they were gone inside the block.

Although i could not teach them a lesson, i had a sense of satisfaction in me, that unlike them, i did not leave the stuff lying in the middle of the road which could've hurt someone. If i could not teach them a lesson, i could at least be a good citizen.

We see these things happening everyday around us, yet we ignore them and move on. This is one main reason that we cannot develop on par with western countries or even our Asian brothers. We are not habituated to clean up our own mess, be it the garbage on the road or anything else.

AND WE CALL OURSELVES THE MOST CULTURED AND CIVILIZED PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET.