Red alert! Caught red-handed!

Phtoo! Red is the colour of the season. Actually not just the season, but at all times. And I'm not talking about the Valentine's Day celebrations or Rose Day. I'm talking about the shapeless stain of red that has engulfed every living and non-living thing in sight in India. The blessed PAAN!

Look around. Every thing's been touched up the 'lovely' colour. Your building, the bus stop, the railway station, the train, the bus. (Oh! That's already red?) The paan loving people haven't even spared hospitals. Actually I say we should colour everything red. At least that way the paan won't be that visible. To woe is India!

I don't know when Indians will understand the importance of keeping the surroundings clean. There should be some sense of shame when they do it. But if you point out to them, they'll ask you, "Tere baap ka rasta hain kya?" (Is it your father's road?) No it isn't. But neither is it your father's! Well technically it is my mother's road as India is supposed to be our motherland. I know that this is a weird and stupid connection but it makes sense to me. So how would you feel if I spit in your house or only on the outer walls of your house?

When I was in school, my professor once told me about his trip to London. Everyone knows that London has a large migrant population of Indians settling there. He told the class about how London was one of the most cleanest cities in the world. Well that was until he visited the Indian settlement in London. (Ya, the Indians have actually created their own settlement in London in one corner!) London suddenly crumbled before his eyes, just like the London Bridge. The settlement was covered in red due to paan stains. He suddenly was reminded of India. I know that old habits die hard, but this was an insult to Indians! And they say Slumdog Millionaire was an insult to us because it showed the slums and the abject poverty condition in India!

I was chatting with a friend of mine who is currently in Auckland. (Yes the same friend I mentioned in the previous blog!) And even he told me his personal experience. He was travelling by the bus and an Indian lady who was sitting in front of him spat out the window. You don't care about your own reputation, I'm perfectly alright with it, but please don't mess around with the 1.3 billion population's reputation.

So hopefully someone will knock some sense into the head of people who constantly spit around, without looking at the people around them! If you're wondering, yes, I have been spat upon by some idiots! And then they just run away without even apologizing! Morons!

And now I end with a small four line poem!

Splashed across is the colour red,
It fills my heart with dread.
Someone please put something in their heads,
Or soon there'll be something else on your bed that is red!