The Ugly Indian | TEDx Talk

Yesterday, while riding my scooter, I overtook another scooter guy. While I was almost crossing him, he just threw a big steam of water from his mouth. My feet narrowly escaped his spit. It was not just a spit, a whole mouth full of water. As a person who usually avoids any kind of confrontation, I just went forward, not ever looking at the bugger who had done it.

This incident and many other similar sights on our roads made me think of our attitude towards cleanliness. Anyone sees such a sight finds nothing unuual, b’cos we are used to seeing all sorts of spitting.

I then thought from the point of view of people who spit- do they get an automatic tendency to spit out which they can’t hold – just like a sneeze?
Or spitting has become an involuntary reaction that they have to spit every 5 minutes?

Whatever it’s, I guess we Indians are poor clean masters. Somewhere we lost the lessons to keep our drains, road sides are cluttered with bottles and waste. Wonder if we will ever learn – unless, we are fined. Probably, each state should now recruit cleaning Marshals who will give spot fine on those who spit or litter.


From the TedX talk by Ugly Indian here are theory which makes our public spaces more dirty:

Broken window Syndrome
Tragedy of the Commons