Feast for Thought

Yesterday was the festival of lights.  Perhaps the festival of noise, smoke, wasted paper and wasted energy too. Deepavali.  Through my window, I heard enough the whole day.  Through the same window, I hear the "music" of brooms cleaning up after yesterday's excesses.  The sound of that music has just moved on, and yesterday's leftovers are out again, to create further leftovers.  This in a city where there is no place to dispose of solid waste intelligently.   They bought. They came. They celebrated.  They bought more, They celebrated further. They left, but didn't pack up. Then they came. They swept. They did their bit. All I can do is spare a thought for her and her colleagues, and hope for better attitudes and understanding next Diwali. God bless them... There is a lot to be said for "Moderation in everything. Everything in moderation", isn't there?  

The debate rages on. This is one area where ringing in the new may not be quite what the nation needs.... Instead of the friendly neighbourhood, dhoti-clad grocer selling you rice, atta and dal, you will be piling up all sorts of mostly superfluous items on to your shopping trolley and get checked out of store by young, suited and booted, extra-polite MBA degree holders. Among the many pros and cons of the issue of FDI in retail, I am concerned that the aspects of consumerism and environmental burden receive no mention at all. We already have plenty of supermarket chains chock-a-block. In the race to offer items at cheaper rates, supermarkets outdo each other with very alluring offers. Those who can afford it, will continue to make use of these offers, even if they do not need the item! All these chains most likely include CSR departments, whose most evident job is to put out notices of reduced plastic / polythene use, even as more items are packaged attractively in plastic. Why ...

What prevents educated persons from being environmentally conscious? What blocks their mind from seeing the consequences of their everyday actions? Of late (I mean as long as 6 years) I look at tings through a waste-management eye - trying to answer the question “Where will this go once its useful life is spent?” And then in my mind loom pictures of stinking landfills and rag-pickers rummaging through certainly toxic garbage. Let’s take a few items of everyday use for starters. 1. The alkaline battery that toys, clocks, personal gadgets use: When you buy a pair of these cells, do you ever spare a thought to their after-life? A few years ago, Bangalore civic authorities had a scheme by which spent batteries could be deposited in a receptacle on MG Road for safe disposal later. (I wonder what came of that.) I had changed over to rechargeable batteries (not that I have shelf-loads of them) to use at home in toys, clocks, the camera and the remote. That's also the time I stopped buing ...