In India, we have seen people worshipping animals, trees, and even rocks. But have you ever seen someone worshipping a dustbin? Yes, a video of women’s putting tilak and offering flowers to a dustbin has left people amazed. The ‘holy’ dustbin, if we may say so is not of a bull, cow, rat or any other animals that have religious connections but a Kangaroo!
The yellow fiber-glass marsupial became a shrine for the people during what appears to be during the Chhath Puja. Not one but many devotees were seen pouring water before the bin and paying their obeisance to the replica of the mammal. One of them even bends down to offer flowers inside the trashcan, as if it is an offering box. They also touch the statue (dustbin) showing respect to it. The caption of the video reads, “This is a scene outside a temple in Bihar when a dustbin was kept for the first time.”
While we could not verify the authenticity of the video, social media users are in splits watching it. Many thought it was funny and one remarked they “mistook the kangaroo for a mouse”, there were some who did not find this funny. One such user commented that maybe they were knowingly worshipping the dustbin as “it is their God because those bins offer food” who rely on the food thrown away by others.
The video hit the internet on October 28 and was widely circulated on social media. But the details of the incident featured in this footage are not available. However, if we go by the buzz, then the dustbin was recently kept in front of the temple in Bihar as part of the PM Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’. The Kangaroo-shaped dustbin was apparently a big surprise for the women in this area who mistook it to be a deity and started worshipping it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan on October 2, 2014, raising awareness about the importance of cleanliness and its benefit. Over the years, the government has been praised and criticised for the various aspects of the project. The cleanliness mission has always been a starry affair with popular names of Bollywood promoting sanitation and public health. However, the Rs 62,000 crore project seems to have been taken a bit more seriously in certain parts of the country.
