Chasing Hopes of a Better Tomorrow

Hope is a very optimistic term. And very relativistic too. At a personal level, we as human beings, hope for many things. We aspire to study well, secure good jobs and finally be able to lead successful lives. But don't you think this attitude is rather parochial? I mean, it's all good and fine to figure out your priorities in life and work towards them. At the same time, I feel it's equally significant that we don't ignore the cause for a general betterment of the nation and the world.

Living in Bangalore for the last few years has made me realize several things. It's a great place to live no doubt. Yet one cannot shake off the looming problems threatening to cripple and paralyze the city which has been hit hard by the sudden wave of urbanization. That the development is not as well-planned as other metropolises is very evident. Thanks to IT boom, the once garden city has witnessed a dramatic surge of people pouring in from other states in search of jobs. And with apartments, shopping malls and high-rise buildings mushrooming up at every other street, there is virtually no space left in the prime areas of the city.

The consequences? Traffic snarls and garbage crisis. Additionally roads have gotten from bad to worse over time and cordoning them off for a repair would be a traffic nightmare. Can you imagine it almost takes me one and a half hours to travel a stretch of 19 kms from my home to work on a normal weekday! If unregulated traffic and bad roads weren't enough, the garbage problem in the city has only embittered the situation. Well it wasn't a new problem to begin with, it was just an elephant in the room that was decided to be conveniently ignored.

Tonnes of garbage generated in the households were until recently dumped on the outskirts of the city, a ridiculous practice in itself. But when the villagers living near the landfills decided to put a full stop, that's when sh** really hit the fan (excuse me for the language!). Now with no place to dispose the garbage, the city corporation has stopped collecting waste. Only an efficient means of garbage segregation and disposal (like recycling) can help people grapple with the crisis.

It's an irony of sorts that a city which is in the vanguard of scientific and technological advancement has been embroiled in such a problem. Not only is the practice a health hazard to those living close by the landfills, it also exposes the out-of-sight-is-out-of-mind approach in us, as nicely put by the Hindu editorial. We make sure that our homes are kept spic and span but give a don't care stance to what's around us. I think it's high time we stop adopting this fallacious mindset.

It's my hope that one day we would be able to live in a better Bangalore than it is at present. But it cannot be mine alone. Everyone Bangalorean will have to work on this collectively to realize the dream. We want our nation to be ably governed and be free of corruption, communal violence and bloodshed. We want the world we live in to be free of poverty, grief and wars. Unfortunately certain things are beyond individual control and so even if, say for instance, one wishes there was an end to all the atrocities, the human suffering, and the growing intolerance, they cannot be obliterated or tackled single-handedly. It's in these helpless circumstances that one begins to question the very foundation of our hopes.

As chimerical as they may sound, it ultimately rests in the hands of everyone of us earthlings to strive and join hands together to fulfill the aspirations and pursuits of a better tomorrow.