Does civic sense make sane or insane

By Ghanashyam Acharya

I am probably one of the most unlucky citizens among the world’s most mismanaged country men, trying to recollect the civic sense lecture of a teacher during my school days. I am deeply pained to have addressed the issue that I am about to address. But I must.

We learnt history, geography, science, politics, literature, grammar and mathematics. What we all did not learn was the civic sense that gives sense of satisfaction for a qualified being. No doubt, we are born poor technologically, economically and academically.

Mercy on us. But how we Nepalese have witnessed centuries of slavery sheltering in others homeland-taking refuge to earn a living for our family in Nepal. For them, we built highways, dams, reservoirs, cleaned garbage, sewage, fought battles as a worrier and sold away our pride of Bir Nepali in the name of kancha and bahadur. We have seen bouts of problems and suffering in our ancestors, yet experienced could not teach us civic sense, moral values and regulation.

We neither learnt A B C of environment and safety, nor learn to walk, ride, and drive along the roads. We need foreign aids to clear up rubbles and litter that we some how dump every day carefully on the roads, quite away from our safe cozy homes. Miles away sincerity has lost its way towards righteousness and gradually we Nepalese are deteriorating.

Yet, we claim that our capital needs yearly SAARC summit to be a clean city. That is why we are worth Bahadur in our refuge home (other countries).

It was a bit frosty morning and mists swept off almost all roads somewhat like the snowcapped Himalayas in the north. It was even hard to recognize friends and relatives at proximity. Just a minute earlier, a farsighted woman and two gentlemen had thrown six bags of filth and litters wrapped in grey polythene bags in the middle of the road.

Expect for the faint shadow of men and woman, I could not see but heard an echo of the "splash" sound of the filth. As I came closer to it, the smell of it caught my nose faster than my eyes could catch the sight of it.

I was only half a meter away from the pile of garbage where pedestrians were coming behind me followed by a motorcyclist with a grey coat at a break neck speed.

Roofed by a wonderful helmet and wrapped around by his coat, stern looking motorcyclist blew sharp horn to the group of innocent pedestrians walking along the middle of the road. A cigarette in his mouth and mobile in one hand, dragged my attention towards him.

Amazingly, pedestrians did not budge an inch to leave the way, nor the speed breaker could stop the motorcyclist to slow down. Suddenly, the rider took a sharp "U" turn, slipped off the road, and injured his legs.

I took him to the hospital. There was no taxi nearby. Therefore, I had to take him by sajha bus, which just arrived on time. I then quickly dragged him towards the last seat. A young college going boy in front of my seat, was writing something about his love for a girl. What a civic sense!

Above the head of the bus driver, in a corner, dangled a nameplate carrying a peculiar warning for the blinds of this city, which read: "No Smoking". But on the right hand corner, some college going guys were dusting their lungs by lighting up cigarettes.

Not only that, a taxi driver, just in front of our bus nearly smashed a group of pedestrians cross passing the zebra at Thapathali chowk. We could also see some of the people writing political slogans on the wall. That made another civic sense.

We got down at Bir Hospital stop. I handed over the patient to the doctor and said bye to him.

As I was passing by, a policeman was waving his stick to the pedestrians who were refusing to use flyover bridge to cross pass Bhotahity and Ratna Park. That is perhaps the reason why we needed one-day holiday to conduct the SAARC summit.

With down poor of the obscenities and rubbish offered by a group of youths, Tribhuwan Park seemed dust bathed. At Tribhuwan Park, peels of groundnut piled by a pair of couples lay placidly. Elderly men chewed pan and spew at the cemented pedestal where Tribhuwan’s statue lay quietly. Near the bus park, at Bagh Bazaar, police officers were busy loading improperly parked vehicles by using cranes.

It was just five days ahead of the summit to have started. What a strange thing! The government on one side was busy with the traffic, cleaning ways and surroundings, making preparations. People on the other hand piled up junks and litters.

That might have been the reason why fascinating cartoon in The Kathmandu Post inspired me to add an essay. Cartoonist’s wisdom to bring sense of humor and satisfaction in our people was never an easy pleasure.

The other day only, I saw a cartoon in The Kathmandu Post trying to tell, "we cleared all the cities but couldn’t to the full. What we could do, was, to cover up your vehicles lest you should see our remaining litters." This might have been the message the cartoonist expressed and translated in terms of body language to which I tried to give a shape on my own perception and understanding.

Fault lies in you and me. Who abandons litters at near by roads, who does not walk over the overhead bridge, who needs help of police officers to have crossed over head bridge, who walks like a bulldozer in the middle of the road turning red eye to yell at taxi driver and motorcyclist.

Fault lies in you and me who urinates and spits on the open streets, who travels at break neck speed, who doesn’t stop at zebra crossing while pedestrians are crossing the roads? And that’s why we need one-day holiday to conduct the SAARC summit in Kathmandu. This is our gift to you from Nepal.

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