By IANS,
Patna : The spotlessly clean railway stations in Japan put Railways Minister Lalu Prasad in a bit of a spot – he couldn’t find a place to spit the red juice of khaini, a tobacco mixture he loves to chew, and realised it had become a “bad habit”.
“I realised chewing khaini had become a bad habit during my recent visit to Japan,” Lalu Prasad said here Friday.
The railways minister said he found it amazing that he could not find a place to spit the juice of khaini in Japan. “Everywhere, Japan is clean and they are strict about enforcing the cleanliness rules. No one can violate it,” he said.
He also said that while in Japan he also realised that the khaini spit makes a place filthy.
In chaste Hindi, Lalu Prasad, known for his rustic style, said: “Japan mein khaini thuke mein jo paresani hua re bhai ki kya kahen, pate nahin chal raha tha ki kahan thuke. Sach mein khaini khane ki gandi aadat hain, ei kitna pareshan kar sakta hain, videsh jane par pata chal jayega (I had a problem of spitting the khaini juice while in Japan. I just didn’t know where to spit. Chewing khaini has become a bad habit. I realised how bad the problem is when I was abroad),” Lalu Prasad said.
Lalu said that in India people are used to spitting everywhere and hardly care for cleanliness and also strew garbage on the railway tracks.
Khaini is a tobacco-lime mixture.