"Kuppai" posting !!

Dear Gowri
As I have been doing on several days in the past, I locked the main door of my house carrying a big polythene cover filled up with......kuppai. On the way to reach the main road, I pass through a big deserted ground where I have noticed that there are few piled up trash in some specific spots. Unable to find a dust bin any where closer to my residence, after some thoughts, I had followed the clue during my first week of stay I too safely kept my Kuppai Cover along with the other ones. (Mind you, in my earlier temporary accomodation, I used to dutifully walk towards the big dust bin - very similar to our Neel Metal at chennai - and put my wastes into it on the way to office).
Well, I did not have an iota of doubt about this (a well set process which is working fine needs no further clarifications, right ??) until today morning when a lady who watched me from a distance said to me some thing. I could not hear her properly and went bit closer to her (who was actually having a stroll with her big dog) to understand what she is telling about.....Following is the conversation that we had in the morning...Seeing my looks (!! that is, I was in uniform appa !!), she started off in English but later settled to Taminglish seeing that I am too fluent & arrogant for her......!! Well ....go on...
Me : What Madam ?
She : Seeing you others are also going to put their kuppai in this ground ?
Me : (with a smile) Please tell me Madam where is a dust bin. I will pick it from ground and put it there
She : You should have asked your neighbours before you dumped it here !
Me : Ok Madam, it is a mistake from my side. Now I am requesting you to let me know the location of the dust bin. I am new to this place and I started putting my kuppai here only after searching out for a dust bin all over.
She : Will you put your kuppai any where you want to ? See how the common place is becoming ugly and untidy...
Me : I dont say that....But seeing the earlier day kuppai bags are cleared I thought this is an arrangement that you people have here. Even at Madras, we have such understandings with the corporation in locations where dust bins are not provided. Please tell me where I should put the kuppai
She : (pointing out a Ditch similar to our Koovam - which is just 2 minutes walk from that place on the way to main road) Put it there....!!
Me : Pardon me, Do you mean this is your dust bin ?
She : Yes
Me : Sorry, I had mistaken the whole point....You were mainly concerned because I am leaving the place around your home ugly....So we can dump this ditch and make it more and more uglier.....?? Well, I can do it right now. (I pick up the bag and walk towards the Koovam and throw it inside)
She : (Nods her head back from a distance as I confirm from the ditch that I have "done")
Who knows, may be she will bring her hubby tomorrow to face a Ruffian from chennai....!!

Well, now this may seem to be a very simple and ordinary incident but when Governments report that they spend crores (and spend just in Lakhs) on massive clean up projects when things go life threatening....., I am amused at one more simple thing becoming big in course of time.
Now there are flurry of questions that I have in mind but the main ones that I wish to ask aloud is......."What is the right thing to be done ?". Even going by the organized efforts of collecting waste by agency in our cities, are we really having a convincing waste disposal system after collecting all the garbage.....What is the best way to dispose the waste under our practical conditions ? Is the "thidakkazhivu" and kazhivu melaanmai working really effective ? To rephrase the question, does the government has the technology to seperate thidak kazhivu from other kazhivu to do the needful ?
{Getting reminded, some time back, couple of my colleagues come from Europe whom I took to Tambaram home....On the way, they noticed huge smoke coming from the garbage burning at Pallikkaranai Marsh. I clarified them (without much expressions in my face) that we used to burn the garbage to have space for the next day's inflow....and introduced it as a "centralised garbage dumping ground for southern cheenai". Did not have an answer to their simple question - "will this not create air pollution ?".....}
Suchoo