“So how would you get sweets?”

She tells me that bamboo, or leaves stitched together were the commonly used packaging materials. If you happen to visit Konark Temple, in Puri, they still use such a packaging!

Sure, breaking jars was something she had to be utterly cautious of, but at least she was privileged not having to eat, drink or put plastic on her skin, at least back then.

It’s funny even saying this for me, because although I try my best to cut down on plastic myself, I cannot possibly go an hour without using them. And while banning plastics seem a tricky deed, not taking that step itself speaks so much about us. India’s initial ultimate ban on plastics by 2022 got scraped off because that will be disastrous for the economy. Frankenstein, yes that’s us! Of course the economy has to adjust itself because so far (since the past 3-4 decades) our economies have been built on foundations that don’t sit in sync with Nature and the current climate emergency calls for nothing less.

A sustainable development is one that strikes a fair and right balance between economy and profits, the people and the environment and giving any one of these more importance than the others might disrupt the balance. Our skies and oceans are contaminated, our soil is becoming toxic, and while we are compromising so much on our environment, we still suffer from poverty (and now with the COVID pandemic, are seeing more ‘new poor’ as per the World Bank). The point is, despite taking Nature for granted, we are (evidently) failing at keeping our people safe, happy and secure. Which further bolsters the fact that three wheels of sustainable development, unless balanced and in sync with each other can cost us everything.

Plastic today is omnipresent. And if this isn’t scary enough, then I don’t know what else can be. Sure my grandmother had to handle everything she had with utmost care and caution, but at least she did not grow up in a world of zombies who are broken from within and outside. Trying to create an unbreakable world today that is choking us and the cost is un-repairable.

Man has touched the Moon but couldn’t get to Mariana Trench, whereas Plastics is very much both in space and at the deepest part of our oceans.

Today, 1st November 2020, is World Vegan Day. I defer to believe that Veganism is merely a food choice. It is a way of living instead. Leslie J Cross defined Veganism as ‘the principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation of man’ which is part of one of the first definitions used to define the term. In the broader sense, being a Vegan is being compassionate to other life forms and we’ve come so far in science that we very well know that right from air to soil to our oceans and land, everything forms a living system. Isn’t what plastics leave us with- a contaminated land (polluted soil that enters our food cycle), polluted water bodies (that choke our animals and microplastics that act as bombs of destruction for the aquatic life) and toxic air (thanks to the inability to break down plastic, upto 12% gets incinerated), an ‘exploitation of man’ that causes suffering for an animal? Restricting only to ‘diet’ per say would be a disregard of what the true essence of Veganism is.

While I’m not a pro, or preaching anything as good or bad, I’m trying to say that each of our  actions say something. Do we still feel it’s okay for you to keep your eyes and ears and nose and mouth shut and be comatose to the world outside, is for you to decide.

The world really isn’t made in blocks and parts, rather a system and a mechanism we can only learn from. Nature, being the best engineer, teacher, architect and what not. As we embark on the season of celebrations, let’s just be cautious of how we celebrate. The aim of celebrations can well be achieved without it being burdensome on the rest of the Animal Kingdom, and we can all be responsible in that terms. So, why not