Lahore and the man eating peanuts

For job, I had to travel from Lahore (capital city of province Punjab) to Sargodha city. Lahore the second biggest city of Pakistan. It’s also one of the most thickly populated place in the world with a population of more than 1.5 crore (15 million). Most of the population is uneducated formally and also illmannered.

People here lack the basic sense of voting, driving, eating and certainly of consumption of products along with disposal of wastes. As a result, Lahore is also one of the most mismanaged and filthiest city in the world.

Today, as I was sitting in waiting area for my bus I saw a man sitting a few chairs away from me eating peanuts. He was a middle aged beard guy. As he was eating, he was throwing the waste in front of him, completely ignorant of the garbage container right beside his chair. While he was doing it, a guy passed by him and told him to throw the waste in container rather than on track. He totally ignored him as well. In the very next moment the cleaner came and requested him to use the container as he just cleaned the track a few minutes back. I was thinking that now this guy will listen and correct his actions. To my surprise, he didn’t. He pulled an other peanut, ate it, threw the waste on track and then stopped eating it.

The poor cleaner, picked up the waste and went on with a sad face.

This is daily routine. Being born in Lahore and living here for the most part of my life, I know this is normal here. This is not just with uneducated people, even highly educated people seem to lack any respect for other people and environment. Many times I feel how lack of empathy, care and compassion is destroying this community on micro as well as macro level. They say,

“The only way to change a society is bring change within individuals first”.

I believe it is true. For Pakistan to change and progress, we the people has to change our thinking.

#change #environment #compassion #choice #Sargodha #Pakistan #lahore #changePakistan #climatechange