He was so excited, bouncing and jumping all over the seat in the car. He had a good reason to be so pumped – it was his first road trip; a car ride across one city to a new one.
He had been told it would be a long trip. He would be sitting in the car from morning till the sun sets and the moon comes out. He wanted to see the clouds that chased after his car, the moon that followed him as fast as his car moved. The bags had been packed two days ago and he could barely sit still any longer. Rushing to the door time and again, checking for the hundredth time if it was time to go.
All the buildings that moved away, as if making way for the trees and farms that would be waiting for him. Welcoming him with their swaying branches, making the air smell so fresh; the sky so clear and everything in multitude shades of green as far as his eyes could see.
Now as the scenery swept by, faster than his eyes could follow, he did not want to move; in case he missed a view. His parents answered all his questions, giving names and explanations to all the mysterious, beautiful and colorful things he was seeing.
He had been sitting for quite a while; they were deep in the interiors of his country far away from the city he had lived in for all of his 4 years. His eyes had seen so much, absorbing every detail as fast as his tiny mind could comprehend.
The roads were different, less wide, bumpier and so dusty at times. His imagination of everything being green was not entirely correct; true there were large portions of green as far as the eye could see but brown was the color he saw more often. More than what he wanted to see.
Brown and dusty, brown and specks of color of all the shades of grey and brown, dull colors that looked washed out, billowing in the wind; sometimes rolling away from the road, sometimes coming on to the road. The colorful specks he saw were faded and dirty; pieces of plastic; pieces littered as far as the eye could see.
He was so unhappy, where had all the beautiful green gone? Where were the resplendent, bountiful green paradises that he had seen only a little while ago? Why was there so much clutter and filth on the side of the roads, on the small hillocks, where ever he turned?
Who had spread so much garbage, dirt and filth here in this green haven?
He could not stop himself and turned to his mom and had to ask…..”Why is there so much garbage everywhere?”
His mother patted him on his head, smiled and said, “Remember, when I tell you to throw wrappers and empty packets in the dust bin? Well, if we don’t do it, then this is what happens. You have garbage everywhere!”
(Image credit: http://teknologitpa.blogspot.in/)