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| Fort Kochi Beach - circa 2018 |
Recently I visited my cousin at
Fort Kochi. To make use of our great evening time, we decided to visit the
beach with our family. We both have seen Fort Kochi a lot. I used to spend my summer
vacation there. The beach and its surroundings were more than familiar to us.
But it was all decades back. And this is an opportunity to reel back to those
good days. We roamed around the streets and market places watching the changes and
finally landed on the beach. Yes, many things have drastically changed around. But
above all those, I was completely struck-down by what I saw at the beach. First
of all, there was no beach at all as we used to see. We had to walk long way
down through the sand to reach the beach. Now, the beach has come so close to
us that in one gush it can wash away the road! The shining sand was what we
used to see around, may be a little tainted by weeds. But now, there are heaps
of garbage, debris, scrap, waste, filth and what not filled around us. Yet,
there I saw families enjoying, kids running, people fishing, dogs eating and
the giant ships pushing through all filling me with a disgusting feel. That
day, the sun set into the clouds as if it had enough of all these. And yet, I
thoroughly felt, we the proud public, we the pompous people, we the hypocritic
humans are not feeling an iota of change in our conscience, in our mindset, in
our attitude or in our life style. We are simply adapting to the growing pile
of garbage under, above and around us. What a pity!
As kids, just as we wake up in the
morning, father used to make us recite a small prayer before we put our feet on
the earth – which ends with the words “Paadasparsam Kshamasvame!”. We
hardly thought about its meaning in those days. It was only when we started to
learn about Nature, Earth and our Environment we started to understand its
subtle meaning – “Forgive me for putting my legs on you, Oh Mother Earth!” and
in a deeper sense addressing to Earth we pray – “Forgive me, though I am
putting my legs on you, I wouldn’t be hurting you, I would be responsible to
whatever I do with what you give me.” – How profound!
And we say we were uncivilized in those days and are becoming
civilized now! How absurd?!
And here we are in the year 2018
with the Environment Day staring at us with the slogan to move towards plastic
free future. We invented plastic, we used plastic, we misused plastic and now
we cry out loud– Beat Plastic Pollution!
I got a chance to listen to a
fantastic discussion about this year’s Environment Day theme (Samvadham in
Doordharshan, Malayalam). The expert talks were making it crystal clear – the
coming generation is going to suffer for sure if we keep on using plastic as we
are doing now. However scientifically
we use, reuse or recycle plastic
it is going to come back to us and erode us in one form or other. Slowly it
will get into our ground water making our ground/well water un-potable. We will
be surrounded with diseases unknown, unheard, un-curable! And the experts say -
There is only one true way ahead – Reduce and Remove! If you could
instill it in your head, Oh Human, go and look in your house, look at your life
style, look into your conscience – and see in how many varied ways you are
using plastic to pollute yourself. We do not have a day to lose. Come, let us
go back to the sublime lifestyle taught by our grandparents. Let us recite the Nature prayers
taught to us by our ancestors. Let us look at those innocent smiles of kids
around and make a pledge – We will Reduce
it. We will Remove it.
***
