If you’ve travelled in India, you will have come across red patches of spittle drying up on walls or on roads. It is a yucky sight but you just cannot help notice. Many Indian men chew tobacco and tobacco related products such as Khaini, pan, and pan masala. All the juice that accumulates in the mouth has to find a way out, and what do they do…Well, they conveniently spit out the contents on roads and walls. It is a disgusting sight to watch, all you can do is hope things change. Walk into government office buildings and you will
be aghast by what you see. If you take the stairs of a government building you feel you are walking in a red house.There is not a space where dry red marks or fresh red spittle is not present. Red patches of pan masala are present on stairs and corners of walls. I don’t know why corners of walls are considered as spitting ground by men that chew tobacco. It’s downright disgusting, to watch somebody spit on the road or on the walls. Needless to say mannerisms have gone to the dogs. Well, you may ask why not take the elevator at in a government building. Well, most times the elevators are not working and even if the elevators
are working fine you would go with stairs because elevators too are spitting ground for many persons that chew pan masala or other tobacco related products.We are living in an age of technology and yet records in offices are on paper. For the moment let’s leave that aspect aside and concentrate on the spitters that paint the town red with spittle. Well, these guys just don’t care. In India many two wheeler motorists wear headgear not because it provides relief from the sun, but because it protects them from a sprinkle of red on their head. If you are riding a two-wheeler be careful when you are overtaking a public transport bus. Suddenly you will find red spittle in the air and it’s likely to fall on you if you are not careful. Yes, many travelers who use local public and private transport services spit from windows of buses. I have come across many instances where two-wheelers riders have gotten into fights and heated arguments with persons that spit from bus windows.
I long for the day when I see spittle-free walls and roads. Will that day come…let’s wait and watch.
