Hey folks,

I want to share with you a story about Gandhiji. One that you probably have not heard before. He was once travelling across the state of Uttar Pradesh, and arrived in its capital, Allahabad. (The city Hindus consider to be ‘sacred’ because it is the meeting place of three holy rivers). Of course, the city’s top brass had geared up to roll out the red carpet. But the Mahatma went to visit—not the government headquarters—but schools and colleges, a home for leprosy-affected children, and the reputed Allahabad University. And then he stepped into the Municipal Offices. Senior members of the Municipal and District Boards had assembled there to pay their respects to him. But Gandhiji was clearly not in a mood for official sweet talk. He was angry, and he lost no time in expressing his wrath. It was ‘criminal’, he said, ‘to pollute with the city sewage the sacred rivers at their very confluence’. Wasn’t it the ‘duty of the Board to adopt a ‘wise and scientific system’ of sewage disposal?, he asked.

Decades—almost a century, in fact—have gone by. We have built new cities and stretched the old ones beyond limits. But if the Mahatma wanders into any one of them today, he would still seethe with anger.
 
Want to know why? Read on.