Short story series:

Clean India

(Originally written in July 2016)

Amudha and her 7 year old son Pranav, walk out of their local grocer shop after purchasing Pranav's favorite chocolate bar. While they walk back home from school, Amudha tears open that chocolate bar and hands it over to her son. She throws away the plastic wrap.

As they walk home, which is at the other end of the street, Amudha enquires Pranav on what he learnt at school that day. As they walk, they go past few small rubbish corners at both sides of the street. A rubbish corner is a spot that gets created organically by people throwing rubbish. When you see a pile of rubbish, it's an indirect psychological license for you to add on from your part as well (not!). This way of thinking (and living) stems from a fundamental sense of people consensus with a lack of empathy towards their country.

Pranav while eating his chocolate, asks his mum about Temples, Mosques and Churches. He said that in their 'moral science' class, his teacher spoke about different religions of the world which he found to be interesting. Keeping with this topic of discussion, he further queries his mum as to who built temples for which Amudha replies that our ancestors built temples. While she confessed to her son of her ignorance on intricate details of the temple architecture, she marveled at the intelligence and artistic foresight of the ancestors who built such magnificent constructions that many archeologists wonder even today. While Pranav listens curiously, his chocolate bar is half way eaten up. She further informs Pranav that those temples are strong and got passed over from one generation to another.

They go past a group of youngsters standing at the opposite side of the street with a stall heading, “Clean India Campaign Volunteer Registration”. A youngster from that stall yells out to Amudha for registering in the initiative for which Amudha kindly rejects.

As they continue with their walk and talk, Pranav almost bumped in to a small rubbish pile on the ground. Amudha promptly drags him away while saying that he got to be aware of his surrounding as he would have stepped on a pile of filth.

Pranav with his innocence intact, asks just like temples, do filth also gets passed on between generations as he sees the same rubbish piles everyday on his return from school.

Once Pranav asks that question with all his innocence, it stuns Amudha. She stops for a second. She doesn’t reply back to her son. She turns back along with her son and starts walking towards that, “Clean Indian Campaign Volunteer Registration” stall, crossed the road, and registers her name and her husband’s name. She enquires when they need her volunteering, for which one youngster replies that if they get enough people, they will clean this street tomorrow. She gets her mobile phone and start ringing her husband. While her husband answers, she INFORMS him to take a day off tomorrow from work as he has a very important work to do. While her husband asks her what it is about, she simply advised him to listen to her and not ask any questions and that he will get to know what that important work is very soon.

Upon finishing up with her phone conversation with her husband, she smiled to the youngsters standing at the stall. They continue their walk home. She then says to Pranav, "No, rubbish don't get passed on from one generation to another. By the time you grow up as an young adult, our town would be clean and have proper rubbish management is place. The next generation will just need to carry on from there.

The next day, Amudha, her family and their fellow neighbors are seen cleaning their streets.