litterbugs

We have two lovely parks in the neighbourhood.One is large and filled with trees and some of us who have grown up in the area cut our teeth in this place.There is a regular play area for kids,fountains and walking track.Outside every vendor worth his salt is selling everything which he believes a health conscious person will buy.Thanks to all the birds,the park has a familiar smell of bird pooh
The new and smaller park is a bit more modern.It has a skating rink,tennis courts with coach and walking track.It also has timings and no trees,just well manicured lawns and flowers on all sides.
I walk there in the mornings and its an interesting place.For starters,everyone who walks is above 40 at least.All of them are fat in varying degrees and almost all of them including myself are plugged in and in our own world.There are hoards of anxious and ambitious parents keeping an eye of their wards,hoping I thing to see them in the next Olympics.Each child on the rink is clad in lycra,elbow pads,knee pads,helmets,the works.Each parent has a bag of goodies,water bottles and are busy comparing notes with other parents.The car park is full of fancy cars.
The men of the tennis court are all overweight but I marvel at the speed with which they run across the court and toss the ball.Not bad at all.One man is a regular on the lawns and irrespective of the sound and fury around him,he is deep in his yoga.
I watch all this while I walk and listen to music,my mind is slotting people and trying to understand them.They seem educated,well heeled and reasonably affluent.This morning I couldn't enjoy my walk.Suddenly it struck me.The park was dirty,full of empty plastic packs,chocolate wrappers,used water bottles and no one cared,no one seemed to notice.I saw a kid throw stuff onto the ground and parents let them do it.The lovely park was becoming a dump yard.I looked around and wondered why this seemingly educated ,well heeled lot didn't stop to think about their surroundings.We crib about poor people in slums rubbishing the place around them,are we any better.I think we are a lot worse.We seem so caught up in our own world that we don't think twice about what we do.Stuff that wrapper into the same pocket as the Ipod and drop it into the bin at home.If we all did that that park will still be the lovely place it is meant to be.When will we ever learn.