Having being brought up in a joint family where my
grandmother, Periappa and Parents, were people who loved the outdoors, it seems only natural that I developed a passion for the
environment. I grew up with the mentality of being a little more conscious of
using resources, of protecting the environment and the natural life.
Thanks to an ever increasing number of
sustainability initiatives at Chennai city especially for last one decade. It
all began with my association with few dedicated NGO’s like Restore in
Kottivakkam and Chennai Trekking Club., etc. I participated in many
environment-themed projects and campaigns conducted by them, including tree
plantings, Beach cleanups, and fun events like turtle walk ,composting and kitchen
garden workshops, etc.
There are always consequences to things we
want to do and there are definitely challenges. I wanted to create a world
where everything is clean, pollution free and safe for me and for everyone. I
wanted to grow my own veggies, manage by garbage and lead a sustainable life.
Staying in an urban area, in a rented house,
it was impossible to get a space to just cultivate my own veggies. My landlord
initially did not object my wish to put up a kitchen garden in my backyard. But
after a year, he did. He was saying my plants were consuming more water and
that according to Vastu, no big plants must be grown on the north east
directions of the plot.
Meanwhile, one day I noticed, the eastern side of a Corporation park
on Seventh Main Road, R. A. Puram, was overgrown with weeds and bushes. I got
an idea. I approached West Raja Annamalai residence association or RAPRA in
short which is ably managed by Dr.Chandresekar and volunteers. I proposed to cultivate a
community vegetable garden there. RAPRA members welcomed the proposal and
encouraged me to conduct several more green initiatives with full support. I
take this opportunity to Thank Dr.Chandresekar for his nobleness and for patronizing
even the small dreams of common people like me. One of the significant way I
work to promote sustainability is by reducing waste in an effort to save money,
resources, and energy. On those lines, evoked the need to prepare bio enzymes. Just
like the previous attempt, I approached
the volunteers and members of SWM and TAKSRA from our neighborhood. One of the main
priorities for sustainability is waste diversion—keeping as much trash out of
landfills as possible by emphasizing recycling and composting. TAKSRA supported me by bringing in experts like
shobha and Swamy who have been doing bio enzymes for many years .Bio enzymes
are nothing but chemical free home cleaners made with discarded fruit peels and
jaggery fermented for a stipulated amount of time, filtered and used as an
alternative to chemical based home cleaners which we easily get in the markets.
And thus the programe was held.
I cease this moment to thank Bala ,Ganga
,Shobha,Kripa from CAG and Karpagam to thank them personally for conducting
this bioenzyme workshop and making my wish come true.
I noticed many of my friends and family
members cared about protecting the environment but were at times confused by
the information they heard about sustainability. I also found that people would
sometimes resist change if they felt it would inconvenience them or disrupt
their daily behaviors.My love for sustainability lifestyle soon led me to
launch my own green store.
And I named it Sangeeni’s Raise The Earth
Looking at environmental issues, I feel it deals with the poor
and vulnerable, who are most adversely affected by environmental issues. I also
think about the future generations who are adversely affected by what we’re
doing today due to climate change, nuclear waste, the accelerated rate in
species extinction, and loss of habitat. I feel we are robbing future
generations of an inhabitable planet. “It’s really difficult to inspire changes
in sustainable consumerism unless the alternative is really easy. And I hope
through Sangeeni’Raise The Earth , this will soon be a reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment