Kingsport

I woke up on the morning after my arrival in Taiwan to hear a musical note from a keyboard and thought that one of our neighbours was perhaps practising.But the note was being played again and again until by evening it became annoying.My son who returned from work informed me that it was the announcement of the presence of the garbage collector!

The next morning I took down the garbage from our home to a common spot where several containers were kept in a row.I was about to dump the garbage into one of them when the watchman of the apartment complex stopped me and took me to another row of containers nearby.He gesticulated to me to open the bag in which foodstuff was collected and asked me to empty it into one of the cans and then place the lid over it.Then he took me to the next container in which the plastic bag was to be thrown along with the plastic waste in another plastic bag b which I had but only after tying it up securely so that the plastic paper and bags would not fly up in the air.All this was done through gesticulations as I knew no Chinese and the watchman could not speak a word of English.

A passer by stopped and then started telling me in broken English about the system of garbage disposal in our apartment complex.He showed me the other row of containers which were reserved for plastic bottles, glass bottles,paper waste, empty lunch boxes and metal scrap.All this was to be scrupulously separated out by teach resident and deposited into the respective garbage bin.Obviously this made the job easier for the garbage collector and explained why our neighbourhood was so tidy in spite of being a residential cum shopping area and a busy thoroughfare in which most of the shops served food.I also saw that the residents observed these rules diligently- a case of rules being observed so as to make life easier and more pleasant for every one.

I could not help contrasting it with the behaviour of my neighbours in Nanganallur, Chennai, who swept and washed their homes and decorated their doorsteps with kolams but dumped their garbage just outside or emptied it into the sewer scarcely worrying about whether some one was passing by.Cattle roam around our streets freely scattering their excrement and urine everywhere while people spat perpetually everywhere while walking or travelling inside a bus.

Well, so many others have written about this and my words are not likely to be any more effective than theirs.Is it any wonder though that no one treats us with respect when we go out of our country?