For #GreenSpacesDictionary and @mumbaismagic I am talking about how we use things and throw.

The things we throw have an afterlife of their own. They wash up on our beaches, they end up in our food, they come back as other stuff and many of it is going to be here to mark the age of humans.

Useful things and life are valued in Mumbai. The usefulness needs to be seen and a spotlight is thrown on it, otherwise, it is thrown away like curry leaves in a curry. Trees are not props where birds sit to shit on your car, for example.

What were once green spaces in the city is where what we use and throw often goes. Dharavi or the flood plains of our city rivers have businesses that recycle what we throw (because development plans don’t give space for what we use and throw).

Every stinking milk packet we throw is cleaned by hand before it is recycled (for example). There are people without gloves Doing that.

And the images are of women who walk our city streets (which is not unique to Mumbai). They are like the mothers of Indian men, who clean up after them.

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