Dr. Satyawan Saurabh
Great men are those who can convert the garbage into gold. They can have that broad vision in life that allows them to foresee possible advantages in adversity. Gandhiji was a leader who rose against adversity, had an ideal vision for India, and fought for its freedom without any weapons, even when people thought that a non-violent movement could never bring freedom to India. Although it may not seem like it at first it is quite true that Trash is Gold. Nothing is useless in our society. The garbage collected from our homes can be used by bacteria to obtain “energy” through decomposition. The garbage industry can be a great source of our national income. Decomposes very easily and can be used to fertilize our soil. Unfortunately, we have not yet realized these potential benefits.
International leaders like George Washington, Bismarck, and Napoleon—of them were able to recognize the right opportunity that came their way. He turned adverse situations into winning situations. So we see that whenever there is a crisis, and the common man fails to read the situation, a new leader is born. But clearly, rising above the whole situation isn’t easy. It takes patience, persistence, talent, broad vision, and a willing heart to turn trash into treasure. When Thomas Alva Edison failed 1000 times in his scientific experiment, the people around him scoffed at him, believing that it was a complete waste of time to engage in such experiments. Had he not recognized his potential, he could never have turned “trash” into “treasure”. Here we see that one person’s negative attitude toward a particular object may be another person’s positive attitude toward the same object. Attitude determines the way we live. We can sit in our homes and sulk over the existing shortcomings of our society or we can come out of our passivity and think of a change by working for the upliftment of the poor. We have to choose. The common man is of the first type. He is so bound by the feeling of inertia, lethargy, and reluctance that he cannot even think of making a small change in society.
The great leaders of the world are of another type. They try to convert situations of waste into treasure. If Raja Ram Mohan Roy had not worked hard to ban the practice of Sati, resisting the pressures of society, it could never have been abolished. If Ambedkar had kept quiet, we could never have aspired for an India where Dalit rights were respected. Unfortunately, evils like child marriage, caste system, dowry system, oppression of the poor, etc are continuing in India, we need leaders who have a broad vision and can turn this adverse situation into a beneficial situation.
The change of political powers in the world is also an opportunity to turn trash into gold. Obama came to power in the United States of America by promising to bring positive change in the lives of the people. When the British left India, India was nothing less than a dustbin, a country that had been plundered of its resources and where all human development indicators were abysmal. But our leaders, freedom fighters, and policymakers have ensured that India becomes a developed nation, and today we are going to achieve this objective. The developed countries of the world are economic superpowers today because they have turned their waste into treasure. Firstly, they were able to make the best use of industrialization by only using raw materials and using them to make finished products. Then they were able to sell these. products at higher prices in the markets of developing and underdeveloped countries, although it may not be ethically correct to follow such a procedure. If we see the map of the world, we can easily identify that the underdeveloped countries have remained so because they were not able to exploit their potential and were leaving it to other countries to exploit.Recently India was able to successfully place Mangalyaan in the orbit of Mars. When we embarked on this mission, the rest of the world looked at us with great wonder and questions. He believed that this could never be done without high cost and scale. But, at a cost of just $74 million, we were able to complete the entire process, making the world realize that India is capable of turning “adversities” into gold.
Trash and Treasure symbolize the very essence of our lives. As Darwin’s theory of evolution says- “The fittest of all species shall survive”. So, we have to constantly monitor ourselves so that we don’t go into sleep mode. We should get our dustbins operational. If we want to live purposefully then in treasure. But there’s a caveat. This restless race to convert the garbage into gold and be superior to others should not be at the cost of the suffering of the poor. It should not be done in unethical ways.
Gandhiji has said- “There is enough in this world to satisfy everyone’s needs but not enough to satisfy everyone’s greed. Let us hope to create a world where hatred, war, anger and Let there be no garbage in terms of violence.” But the promise of love, compassion, tolerance, and walking hand in hand with loved ones is the treasure. In this way, we will all be able to turn our garbage into gold. It is not so easy to selflessly think about the good of the nation and feel the responsibility of 125 crore Indians, irrespective of the country or any ruler. But to believe that power is not a bed of flowers and that a lot needs to be sacrificed for the good of the people. But we have great legacies in the form of Nehru, Gandhi, Patel, Azad, and Lal Bahadur Shastri who have put the country ahead. With such rich examples, we have the way ready, all we need is the willpower to put ourselves on that path and do good for the country. Finally, it is not only the responsibility of the state to provide for the public good, there is not much the state can do if individual pressures are not with them. Therefore, all the stakeholders of a nation must understand their power and their responsibility to do good for the nation. Gandhi has said- “There is enough in this world to satisfy everyone’s needs but not enough to satisfy everyone’s greed. Let us hope to create a world where hatred, war, anger and Let there be no garbage in terms of violence.” But the promise of love, compassion, tolerance, and walking hand in hand with loved ones is the treasure. In this way, we will all be able to turn our garbage into gold.
Dr. Satyawan Saurabh,
Research scholar, poet, freelance journalist and columnist, All India Radio and TV panelist
