Breathe Easy See Dirty

Confusing Title !! Today's blog is on based on what I see, what I hear and what I breathe on my daily morning walks around my city of Thane.As usual my wife Shyamala,and me left on our usual morning round taking a route along the express way on the service road.We walk for about 45 mins to an hour covering on an average a distance of 5 to 6 kms.We avoid going in parks or around the different lakes [The Lake City of Thane] as it is boring to see the same people again and again.Being a doctor I come across many of my known people and have to acknowledge their 'mornings or stop for some consultation.As this disturbs my walk,I prefer going on long stretches in the city.[Photo on right from Midday 28/04/06,on left from Infopedia.com]

Coming to today's Title.I had noticed the pollution levels going down over the years ,especially after Thane was revamped , so many years ago and went on to win the' Title' of' Cleanest City of India' .We have many of these three wheeler small cabs called Autorickshaws running about town.They are seen in many South East Asian countries also and known as Bajaj,or Tuk- Tuks.Recently there was a news item that they will shortly run on the streets of London and be called Tuk Tuks.[Photo of auto from Wikipedia ]

Here they were seen as creating a lot of pollution.Today I was delighted to see markings of CNG [compressed natural gas ] in green on the front of these Autos.I was happy that they seem to be getting converted to CNG and thought it to be a good beginning.As I was walking my happiness got multiplied on seeing a large number of them almost every alternate one with CNG.We were breathing easy over the years now it will be easier. That is Breathe Easy.

Now over to See Dirty.Our city of Thane was supposed to have had about 60 lakes.Over the centuries about 30 are to be accountable,on this day, as per my right or wrong information.Our local authorities have done a wonderful job of renovating,beautifying and dredging most of them so as to look really presentable to anyone visiting this city.Alas ! our citizens do need disciplining.We see the wonderful parks,lakes,gardens of foreign countries on TV channels as also photos taken by friends and relatives going abroad.What ails our people when it comes to civic sense?It saddened me today, on seeing the massive pollution of Makhmali Talao,a lake about a km from my reside.This lake was seeing better days after a clean up,Bio treatment and people cooperating on not throwing garbage and flowers in the lake.I fail to understand what has occured suddenly .It was sad to see the greenish scum, plastic bags,flowers floating on the water.Unless people participate with a determined civic sense,a seriously lacking backup of authorities and leaders,we will not improve.Forget making Shanghai of Mumbai.People there must be making fool of us .We don't deserve Democracy. We need a Lee Kuan Yew.

Breathe Easy But See Dirty.