Spitting: A Public Nuisance

Gaya, a king of Hindu mythology, invited a lot of trouble by his indiscriminate spitting, which once fell in the hands of Lord Krishna, while travelling on his vimana. Ultimately, Arjuna had to go to Gaya’s rescue, which culminated into a war between Krishna and Arjuna.

We find, every day, many such Gayas around us. Some people spit recklessly everywhere, be it on the floor, a wall or the road. One of my friends from the US, Bob Stone, was shocked to see people spitting beetle juice on the walls and staircase corners when he visited India. He thought that they were spitting blood, for he didn’t know what it was.

Public-spitting is a shame to the nation. Even in the most backward countries, we don’t find people spitting on the roods. First of all, frequent spitting is injurious to one’s own health. It leads to depletion of saliva in the mouth hampering digestive power of the body. Spitting, especially pan-spitting, leads to spread of infectious diseases like tuberculosis, flu and common colds.

Unfortunately, some people have the habit of spitting from running vehicles such as cycles, scooters, trucks, buses and even cars, which is woeful for the victim. It is like a curse from hell!

In most of the offices, in order to abate this menace, pictures of deities are fixed on staircase corners. Alas! You find spitting everywhere else except in those corners.

There is place for eating and peeing and similarly for spitting. Public spitting is an act of uncultured and uncivilised people.

Only a change in the people’s attitude will save us from this menace!