I just happen to read the article Young Indian Heritage Walk to Arittapatti. There were two things which caught my eyes,  collective ownership of the city and civic sense. Every year in the month of August, "Feria de las Flores" or the Festival of Flowers is celebrated in Medellin, Colombia. The festival holds 2 Guinness world records, the largest outdoor horse parade (about 7000 horses and riders  participate) and the largest outdoor flower parade. There is a huge rush of tourists from across the world and for a change I happen to hear English tit bits quite often.  I saw collective ownership and civic sense in true form over here. My son's school send a message that the school will not conduct the extra classes during this week as they do not want to add to the traffic congestion which might have occurred. Further Pico y placa (peak and (licence)plate), a traffic congestion mitigation policy is implemented during the week. The policy restricts the movement of public and private vehicles ending with certain digits between certain times (rush hour). For further details on the policy, simply Google it...

The city of Medellin is in a party mode throughout the week. However, there is no aftermath of the party, no litters or garbage spewed across the city lanes, unlike the Ramlila Maidan which converted into a garbage dump after the historical fast of Anna Hazare.

Apart from the flower show, one can observe the horse show and the antique car parade. I was fortunate to be able to see all the shows. What was striking about the show was the after-works. In banking parlance we have a term called ABH (After Business Hours), where a group of system engineers readies the system for the next BOD (Beginning of Day) after running a series of EOD (End of Day) activities. They start the work after the bank hands over the system after business and ensure that the BOD starts without hitches. I happen to see similar activities during the show. A dedicated municipality ensured the cleanliness throughout. The streets are sweeped and cleaned with water after the parade, I mean almost immediately after the parade. 

For us, cleanliness ends with our home and we are not bothered about our surroundings. Being a civic society, we  must ensure that the ownership trickles down to everyone. Collective ownership and civic sense is the need of the hour.