Whither Indian Civilization?
I wandered upon the edge of the sidewalk searching for a spot to step on to the street. The roadside was littered with all kinds of scrap – waste paper, wrappers, cigarette butts, loose earth, plastic bottles and bags, empty tobacco sachets etc – to such a degree as to make it difficult for any person to alight from the sidewalk without landing on some kind of junk. I did manage to cross that barrier somehow, and hurried to cross the street on seeing the pedestrian light turn green. However, green does not always mean “go” which discovered to my chagrin as a motorcycle whizzed past me at breakneck speed in spite of all the red lights. I got to the other end of the street unscathed, thanks to providence, and decided to do a bit of shopping. There were makeshift shops by the dozen on the pavement itself, selling everything that any regular shop would sell, and with everything spread out on the pavement, blocking off half the width of the pavement in the process. Anyway, I threaded myself...