Sangeetha- A new Destination.

Sangeetha-the Restaurant is planning on opening a new outlet at Broken Bridge.

Or so we’ve been led to believe by the truckload of their personal property that’s there.

Our story begins (or began) when Sangeetha hired a man who had hired a flat in the Urur fishing hamlet, to take care of their trash. The mountains of rubbish that hundreds of hungry Chennai-ites help them generate everyday. When the contractor took on the contract, like most people with a job to do, he wanted to do things the profitable way e. i.e. By giving Sangeetha maximum satisfaction at minimum inconvenience to himself.

So the trash was sent to Broken Bridge. Whole plastic bags, torn plastic bags, tattered plastic bags…all leaving a trail of this noxious insides behind. An entrail trail, actually.
That was how the residents of the Urur Hamlet came across it. An emergency meeting of the Hamlet was called and the contractor was arraigned before the panchayat. In his defence he did not have much to say and he was ordered by the panel to have the beach cleared of the trash in 2 hours.

ROB volunteers are currently gathered at the Broken Bridge taking photos and estimating the amount of filth generated. Archanaa Sekar, a ROBber was unsettled at “the amount of trash one restaurant generates in one day”. She said there was every possible type of waste out there- dry waste, wet waste, organic, inorganic, bio-degradable and stuff that would outlive us by a couple of centuries.

But while the trash is worrying, the current concern is getting it off the beach. When Sangeetha hired this man to do a job, they should have followed up HOW he was doing it. With their experience, they should have been well aware that most contractors would follow the ‘no pain, loads of gain’ principle. The trash they generate is theirs. They cannot disown it by handing it over to someone else.
While the contractor is responsible for the litter landing up on the beach, as one ROBber argued, how is he worse than the normal litterers who come by and drop off little gifts of gutkha packets, cigarettes, spoons and tins..etc..? True, he was making a profit. He was taking advantage of being situated near the Broken Bridge to use it as his private dumping ground. But what’s also true is that he is, in essence, doing what every other litterer does.

The only additional problem he caused, as yours truly sees it, is he put the Hamlet at stake. While the people of the hamlet know that the man isn’t a resident, proper, there most outsiders would view this as the ‘hamlet’s new dumping ground’. Fingers would be pointed to the hamlet, filthy aspersions would be cast by thesaintly middle and upper classes at the hygiene of the hamlet- people would use this as an excuse to further dump on hamlet ground. ‘After all, they do it why not us?’

And coming down to the basics of course- where was the Corporation in all of this? While they had no part of the deal between hotel and contractor, surely they should be alert to what is happening on Corporation land? The Broken Bridge falls under their watch. And when the trucks rolled in, the Watch was asleep.

ROBbers on the beach right now are awaiting the finale to this morning’s episode. Cameras, phones and pen and paper are noting various details that the corporation or Sangeetha are likely to miss.

Update: Two ROBbers filed a complaint with the police who sent in men. A case has been filed against Sangeetha.

The beach has been cleaned up. Again.