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Fooled by the Bottle..!

By Robert Clements. Dated: 5/23/2018 10:58:09 PM

A sight I have seen ever so often at railway stations are urchins running with empty mineral water bottles to water taps on platforms, filling them up and then selling them to the passengers, as genuine packaged drinking water. There is nothing furtive in the actions of these little fellows, they do it openly and everybody sees what they are up to. What is surprising is to see the public buying the bottled water, even after knowing it was just filled from dirty tap around the corner!
What makes them do this, is the bottle. On the bottle is still displayed the name of the company who first bottled the water. The label is still intact. The blue cap still very much in place, without a seal of course, but who cares. The shape of the bottle still says seductively, 'Drink me, I'm pure," and the water is drunk.
Dirty, filthy, water!
And the packaging continues trapping us.
In khaki uniform, we think 'security'!
Blue helmet and we feel safe with fire!
White Gandhi cap and are country is safe!
Day after day we are fooled by the bottle syndrome and drink the dirty water inside. The khakis we feel so secure about is wrapped around thousands of dishonest cops. Walk into any police station in this country and watch policemen making money hand over fist, day after day after day.
The blue, fire fighters uniform: I've heard that most fire-fighting stations have a broker who negotiates the amount a builder has to pay to get past safety norms. There are buildings now in cities which have no room for fire engines to enter. There are restaurants whose kitchens are gas chambers waiting to explode. Theatres, with no fire exits. Shopping malls and theatres made of inflammable material!
And the politician? Ah the man who has been elected to serve his people. His whole interest in making as much money in his term in office, whether its crossing the floor a dozen times or turning a blind eye to everything illegal. The white cap like mineral water bottle contains a head of corruption.
What fools us is the bottle:
Its not that we don't know that inside the bottle is muck. It's just that we couldn't care less. We have reached a sad stage when we are too lazy to throw out the water. "So what?" we say.
Meanwhile starched khaki droops inside and Gandhi cap covers rot.
We are seeing the arrest of corrupt leaders.
Is there shock?
Not really.
Politicians are corrupt, we say.
And life goes on.
We drink the water the urchins bring to us. We smile at lovely bottle and don't feel disease and germ creep down our throats.
Wake up, before it's too late: The dirt is beginning to surface..!
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