The Hashtag Warrior

Keeping our localities and cities clean is not a responsibility confined to a selected section (of ministers, bureaucrats, officials etc.), but this is a duty of each and every one of us. Shillong’s Namgjop Thabah is on a mission mode as he rages a war against those who are littering the Pine city. #NoLitterShillong and #AdoptaNeighbourhood, online initiatives of this youngster from the hill city has caught everyone’s attention.

- Sayantani Deb

Humble Beginning

Cleanliness is next to god-liness. This is something we have been taught right from our childhood. But as we grow to a man from a child, along with our garbage we often throw out this teaching (of life) out of the window. And as the surroundings start getting dirty, fingers begin to point towards the higher authorities, ‘reminding’ them of their faults, seldom realizing the wrong that we have done.

To see the litter around, shrug off, and pass on critical comments on the administration’s role is the easiest thing one can do. But among this bunch of ‘no-doers’, there exists a few individuals who do not wait for someone to start something and take the onus on oneself, but they become the change they want to be.

Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore once wrote, ‘Jodi tor daak shune keu na aashe tobe ekla cholo re’, which means ‘If no one answers your call, Then walk alone’.

For 24-year-old Namgjop Thabah, a journalism student from Shillong, when saw his city’s litter he decided to do something and make an effort to make it clean. Finding minimal support, he began on his mission alone to make Shillong’s roads and lanes litter free. And gradually his efforts have started reaping the sweet fruits of success.

Awareness Through #hashtags