There were a few crazy things about India that I still can’t get my head around. Everywhere you looked, people and possessions were decorated as much as they possibly could be. I am pretty sure Indians invented the whole idea of bling. Bicycle spokes were decked out with plastic beads, women were wearing some of the most gorgeous fabrics and jewelry I have ever seen, and buildings were so ornately carved it was incomprehendable the amount of time that must have gone into their creation. Yet surrounding it all, was more trash and filth than I know how to explain. Streets were lined with decomposing trash mixed with sewage and who knows what else, and cows, goats, pigs and dogs roamed all over, munching on the mixture to their hearts desire. If you open a stick of gum, what do you do with the wrapper? Why, throw it on the ground of course! Done with that bottle of water? Just drop it as you walk. Change the baby's diaper? Just toss the dirty one over the garden wall.
Personally, I just couldn't do it. I know the old saying goes "When in Rome, do as the Romans" but I just couldn't do it. Somewhere along the line, I'm thinking elementary school, someone instilled in me that being a Litter Bug is a very bad thing. I can actually almost remember it--my parents had a grey Buick and it was nothing to toss gum and candy wrappers out the car window, but I came home from school one day with one of those little trash bags that you fixed to the knob on the radio (back when they had knobs!) and never again did we throw out the wrappers. I am thinking those little bags need to make their way to Indian children!
So because I just couldn't add to the trash, I actually came home with a significant amount of garbage in my suitcase! It was mostly food wrappers and used tissues.
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