SIGNALS are available in Nature that the rains are on their way out. Now, with Diwali festivities round the corner, it is time for Nagpur -- its administration and the people -- to deck the city up for the healthy season ahead. Soon, the dampness and humidity in the atmosphere will go away and the air would be crispy and cool -- before it turns very cold in the next couple of months.

 

This should be the time for the administration and the people to undertake a massive cleanliness drive in the entire second capital city of Maharashtra. Let us start cleaning up the city’s every nook and corner and every street and every public place and every public building and every government building. Let us clean up parks and gardens and playgrounds and open spaces. Let us also clean up the city’s icons of honour -- the statues of great personages from history. In simple words, before Diwali arrives in the ten days, we must have our dear Nagpur all spruced up and cleaned up all ready for the festival of lights. This is not something strange the loosefooter is suggesting; in fact, this was India’s ancient tradition -- of cleaning up the surroundings that usually gathered a lot of filth and slush during the rainy season. So, it was a happy practice everywhere in India to undertake cleanliness drives in cities and towns and villages. Therefore, it is time we also did the same.

 

Here, the loosefooter is not talking about the regular cleaning and sweeping that goes on in the city as part of routine. Such routine work cannot make the city sparkling clean. What is needed, therefore, is an intense cleanliness drive that would spare no corner of the city and its installations plus people’s homes and places of worship. Ancient India cleaned up its cities and towns and villages twice a year -- once after the rainy season wore out; and then before Holi at the cusp of winter and summer. Such drives were in addition to the regular, customary cleaning up of the place. That was the reason why the general standards of cleanliness in India’s cities and towns and villages used to be high all the year round. In modern times, with a lot of technology-support, we, too, can undertake such drives in which every person is expected to participate. Imagine the good feeling each one of us would have when the city is cleaned up with no filth left over at any place.

 

This should not be a matter of any official practice; much to the contrary, it should become part of the culture of the larger society -- of keeping the place of our living clean and spick and span ! Old-timers of Nagpur would remember how clean their city used to be. It was certainly smaller in size, but had all the good potential to be a truly good city. Today, we will not be able to make such a claim. The aim, therefore, should be to be able to make a clear claim that we are handling our city better, faaaar better. Are we mentally prepared for such a challenge ? n