Lessons from “Langama”: Littering in Public, for kids!

A ride in a “Langama” bus is always a thrilling, unmatched fun. I have reasons to count on the above statement as the 55 year old uncle who is living by my house recalls his memories as a school boy where they were given an old, red TATA bus as their school bus. However, a problem arises as to what extent this elated moments are being experienced by the present generations. We need to understand the broader perspective of the word ‘fun’ & badly need to appreciate the fact that the higher majority in our similar age groups fail to enjoy in public transportation.

Enough preaching: Needed to tell what I felt over the parental population in this country. Especially who are travelling with their kids in public carriages!

The mother was in her 30s. Her small boy was around seven/eight years old. These judgements were made by looking at the way they behaved, their appearances, etc. Both were dark. The mother’s hair implied of a low income family. The brownish, damaged hair with some grey substance on her head, wet sweat all over her face was telling me that she had been working somewhere for her daily wage. How I saw all these? Unlike other days, I had to get into the bus from the front and managed to sit three seats behind, where the mother and the kid was sitting.

The kid was seen eating some snack. Tipi-tip! Great. When we were small, we were warned not to eat those as they contain some bloody chemical (which I can’t remember right now).

The kid seems to have destroyed all the stuff inside the packet and at the next moment he poses a question at his mother. “Meka wisikarannanada?” (Shall I throw this off?) The mother gives the green light. The son, after receiving his mother’s consent, throws the empty polythene packaging to the road, while the bus was moving. The packet was caught unto the wind and displayed a number of circles in the air, which makes the kid cheerful.

He enjoys that moment screaming, ‘amme ara, araka piyambala giyaa mehema’ (Mother look, that went flying like this), and demonstrating how the packet behaved up in the air, using his two hands.

This seems to worry his mother. ‘hah hah, ke nogaha innawa wisikaraanam’ (Ok now shut your mouth and wait, if you had thrown it). She replied saying the above, in a low voice, looking at each of the two sides beside her using the tips of her eyes. She thought her last comments were too low in voice so that others hadn’t heard her.

‘After allowing her son and encouraging him to do the wrong act, she is trying to save her ass.’, this was what struck my mind at this exact point. Why would people tend to act like this? I started worrying myself. Is it because of her low education level? How can someone judge another by looking at his appearance or cloths? Well, that’s not an effective argument. I shared this with my batch mates and the lecturer the next day. She felt upset as her son exposed the little secret his she told him, to the whole bus. She knew it and that’s why she reacted like that. Finally I concluded!

If someone is to act positive towards the betterment of the society and others, he should be well guided and educated on the real aspects, from his childhoods of course. My lecturer charged me stating, “You could have stopped him doing that if you saw it”. Well ya, but I was three seats behind them and there were other ‘adults’ who saw this whole scene while sitting closer to them. (I’m not trying to save my ass)

The mother and the son got down from the second next halt from which she allowed him to throw the packet out. Littering, while you’re on the go! That’s interesting...