Clean and Colombo, a combo

Kito

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Updated: August 15, 2013 11:41 IST

The Hindu's Sri Lanka correspondent, Meera Srinivasan says Colombo is a city where even a stray piece of trash on the road will surprise you, a place where cleanliness is only enhanced by the greenery all around

"How come?" I wondered, when I recently spotted a used, disposable plastic cup, of a famous yogurt brand, lying on the pavement in my Colombo neighbourhood.

In the last four months that I have been here, I have seldom seen anything synthetic on the roads – no polythene bags being chauffeured around by the breeze, no food packets with rice spilling out, no disfigured mineral water bottles.

Occasionally, I would spot dry leaves popping up on the pavements. And invariably, I would also hear a sort of brushing sound – after a few weeks here, I could recognise the sound even from a distance – it was the conservancy worker's large, fork-like bamboo broom toiling over the broad concrete pavement.

A middle-aged woman, wearing an orange t-shirt, like many conservancy workers here, would not spare even a single dry leaf. On several days I have seen her mid-morning, and on some days, in the afternoon.

Colombo, as some of my friends had told me earlier, is a city where even a stray piece of trash on the road will surprise you. Cleanliness is only enhanced by the greenery all around.

When my friend, a local journalist, countered my point of view saying, "Oh, that is only the heart of Colombo. It's meant to be all posh, you know," I thought that she perhaps knew better.

All the same, from my limited experience of travelling outside Colombo on a few assignments, I feel that the average city or town in Sri Lanka tends to be far cleaner than its Indian counterpart.

I can already hear some of the arguments against what I say – India is a far bigger country, we are grappling with a population of over a billion and conservancy is a greater challenge in such a context. I have no disagreement over any of these.

As someone who has been a Chennaiite all her life, it is interesting to see how this neighbour – just a 50-minute flight away – manages to be so clean.

When it comes to things like cleanliness, public transport or urban sanitation, you usually tend to turn to the West for benchmarks.

When you speak of the Chennai Metro, you are secretly hoping it would be like the London tube network one day. When you speak of doing road trips, one of your friends will tell you how he drove for 14 hours in the States with no sign of fatigue. Similarly, when it comes to how clean a city is, even if we have to consider examples closer to home, we point to a developed country like Singapore.

However, here is a city right next door, with very similar challenges as any other developing South Asian country, that takes its cleanliness very seriously. You may have a million differences with Sri Lanka – for patriotic, political or ideological reasons, but you have to give it to the conservancy agencies here and larger civic sense of citizens for maintaining the city this way.

Not very long ago, a 30-something sales professional I met here, told me that the army personnel – who defeated the LTTE – were heroes of the country. I am not sure I agree with him entirely.

But I do know one hero for sure - the middle-aged woman I spot every morning who, with her broom, coaxes every little leaf on the pavement to step away and make way for the pedestrian.

Clean and Colombo, a combo - The Hindu
 

Kito

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Colombo, Sri Lanka

 
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Kito

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Colombo, Sri Lanka

 
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Kito

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Colombo, Sri Lanka

 
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vishwaprasad

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Colombo, Sri Lanka

Meera Srinivasan says Colombo is a city where even a stray piece of trash on the road will surprise you
Great clean city...looks somewhat like Dubai, mostly like Bur Dubai where I visited this July for my official works....I love SL for its natural beauty and somewhat to me it looks like my region Karwar....but reason I quoted what Mira Srinivasan says, that at 5:51 in this video you will see one plastic trash bag is floating on the road...its really surprising though...
 
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Singh

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Sri Lanka looks very clean and well-developed. Definitely want to visit sometime. Do most Sri Lankans understand English well?
Their civic sense is tremendous, and so is their driving sense.

If you want to visit any monuments, don't be surprised if you are asked if you are from South Indian or North India. ;)
 

Kito

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Their civic sense is tremendous, and so is their driving sense.

If you want to visit any monuments, don't be surprised if you are asked if you are from South Indian or North India. ;)
South Indian vs North Indian thing. actually some Sri Lankans think North Indians polite than South Indians, also they think North Indians richer than the south Indians etc. That's the reason if that question asked. It's not a serious question though.
 

Dovah

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I like their parking etiquette and the roads are not crowded so as to make driving impossible. :thumb:
 

Ray

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It is good to see a clean city anywhere in the world.
 

Kito

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I like their parking etiquette and the roads are not crowded so as to make driving impossible. :thumb:
he has recorded on a holiday.
In the morning and evenings there is much traffic it's annoying to drive sometimes.

 
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Singh

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South Indian vs North Indian thing. actually some Sri Lankans think North Indians polite than South Indians, also they think North Indians richer than the south Indians etc. That's the reason if that question asked. It's not a serious question though.
IIRC, South Indians aka Tamils are not welcome to most sites esp Buddhists, and those priests you some very nice words for them.
 

Kito

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IIRC, South Indians aka Tamils are not welcome to most sites esp Buddhists, and those priests you some very nice words for them.
There is no filtering TN Tamils from Buddhist sites. who told you Sri Lankans are doing this TN Tamils?
Sri Lanka is only catching the TN Tamils who are engage in illegal activities, mostly engage in jobs in here. More recent incident was TN Tamil women who has come here to pick pocketing. After get caught by the Police she had mentioned in her statement she came to Sri Lanka with a team of 12 to pick pocketing.
 

Kito

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Tuk tuk ride in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 
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