It was a regular work day and I was rushing to office. Just one thing left to do — pick up the bottle of water I keep in my car to endure long traffic jams in the heat. But I couldn’t find it. Had my mother forgotten to keep the bottle ready? That seemed unlikely.
“It’s Nirjala Ekadashi today,” my mom called from the next room. “You’ll get enough water on the roads today.”
Ekadashi is celebrated on the eleventh day of every lunar fortnight and is considered a means to attain Moksha. Nirjala Ekadashi is considered the most significant Ekadashi in the Hindu calendar, during which people make makeshift tents along the road, serving passers-by glasses of chilled water, flavoured milk, lassi and all sorts of thirst-quenchers. This community service is popularly known as chabeel.
So I set out, bottleless, for my short everyday journey from Vasundhara, Ghaziabad, to Noida. Soon the heat got too much and I found myself looking for a chabeel. I found one near the Ghazipur toll tax. A bunch of young boys with their heads covered with handkerchiefs were serving water, with devotional music playing from a mobile phone on a table laid out with jugs, plastic glasses and ice buckets.
A middle-aged woman came to me with a glass of pinkish water (I’m guessing it was Rooh Afza) as I rolled down my window. I thanked her and took a sip. My thirst, the heat, along with a complete stranger’s hospitality, made the drink taste sweeter. Behind her I could see the boys diligently going about their jobs, offering elixir-like drinks to passers-by who pulled up. I smiled, thanked the woman and asked where I could throw my used glass. “Awain sut do side te,” she told me as she made her way back to the stall. “Throw the glass right there, on the side of the road.” I was stunned. I looked around to see at least a hundred glasses littered on the road I was on. I couldn’t. I decided to keep the glass in my car, and drove off.
This was supposed to be charity, thought of by someone who wanted to help the people and the community. What about Mother Earth? She wasn’t invited to this party, was she? The least we could do is set up a dustbin to throw the used glasses in. Caring and serving are all good, but responsibility comes with the package. Either take it up as you should, or don’t. Mother Earth can be your playground but never your plaything.
