Can a garbage truck be clean?

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporationrsquos garbage truck was barreling down Linking Road and I was in the autorickshaw right behind it Since it had just rained the air was more or less pristine In other words no other aromas competed with the ripe and fetid vapours blowing towards me from the truck The truckrsquos maw was open and strands and chunks of its last junk meal were strung out between its metal teeth A full load of wet garbage lurched dangerously within the vehicle Every pothole dislodged some morselsThen came the soundmdashthwackkkSome wet organ oozing slime and blood was sprawled across the autorickshawrsquos front window intertwined with straws and string cloth and plastic a messy entrail from the bowels of Mumbai The main part of it was some animalrsquos intestine It had come from the garbage truckThis sight from my Mumbai visit this September is neither unusual nor even extraordinary Garbage trucks both those owned by the BMC with their builtin compacters and open LCVs outsourced to thirdparty vendors are a perfectly common part of everyday Mumbai lifeWe donrsquot expect their filthy metal jaws to be closed We expect to behold the cityrsquos excretions ripe rotten and brazen We expect to grit our teeth brace ourselves and look for the first opportunity to overtake them At least this one is doing its job we might think Canrsquot expect a garbage truck to shine can you Itrsquos picking up the cityrsquos slush after allSince Irsquove made a career out of challenging foregone conclusions let me ask todayrsquos question does a garbage truck inevitably have to be as filthy as the muck it carriesIn the 17 years Irsquove lived in Bangkok a city that produces as much garbage debris and trash as Mumbai the only wastecollection trucks Irsquove seen are spotlessly clean even when theyrsquore chockablock with rubbish The garbagemen hanging on to the back are usually protected by rubber boots and gloves masks and helmets The vehiclersquos jaws are always closed and they do not leave a malodorous trail of drippings and droppings when they hit the roadUnlike in Mumbai Bangkokrsquos garbage isnrsquot celebrated triumphantly on its way to the dumping grounds And unlike Aamchi Mumbai every day is as good as Vishwakarma Puja for this cityrsquos garbagemen They clean their rearloading compacter trucks daily till they acquire a military gleam They take pride in collecting garbage efficiently and professionally without littering or loiteringWhat makes Mumbaikars so tolerant of filthy garbage trucks Could it be that the average Mumbaikar is so abjectly grateful that rubbish is being collected at all that they look the other way when an overladen garbage truck passesThe late adman Alyque Padamsee once answered this question with a pithy and memorable quip ldquoIn Mumbai whatrsquos mine is mine Whatrsquos everybodyrsquos is nobodyrsquosrdquoMumbairsquos public spaces are effectively orphaned because no one feels any ownership of them Since neither the BMC nor residents take pride in them their desecration slovenliness and neglect concern nobody The resident who keeps her house clean by dumping refuse on the public pavement outside is exactly as culpable as the garbage collector who overloads his open truck and leaves a slushy trail of droppings on a newly built road he cares nothing forRanking cities according to lsquodirtinessrsquo is an exercise seldom undertaken because of its inherent complexity and lack of guidelines but in 2007 Mercer Human Resource Consulting released its Quality of Life Report ranking 215 cities on metrics such as air pollution waste management water potability hospital services medical supplies and the presence of infectious diseases For their baseline they assumed New York giving it an index score of 100 Baku Azerbaijan came in last with a score of 276 while Calgary Canada topped with a score of 1317Mumbai Seventh from the bottom with a score of 382If you decide to challenge Mumbaikars about how much everyday shabbiness they are willing to tolerate you could end up with a long list of questions Herersquos another one waiting to be asked does a city with so much construction inevitably have to be dustyBangkok with as many flyovers and highrises coming up as Mumbai always has a better answer Turns out that all a builder has to do to create a zerodust environment at the construction site is hire a lad and give him a water pipe His only job will be to keep all open grounds damp hose down debris and wash the tyres of departing trucksOf course the two prerequisites are a builder who believes his construction should not be adding dust to the citymdashand a determined citizenry convinced something can be done about the dust and debrisfrom constructionDo such citizens exist Of course they do You can see them going in and out of Mumbairsquos metros each and every one walking to the single dustbin at the exit to discard their used ticketThe same Mumbaikar who goes out of his way to keep the metro spotless reaches street levelmdashand becomes a donrsquotgiveadamn human being againYou can reach C Y Gopinath at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper