When I graduated from engineering, I was already selected for a job of software engineer in a reputed company. I felt on top of the world. But when I started working I realized, this is not my calling. Yes I had money, got an onsite opportunity very early in my job but then there was a huge void. The big question!! Why am I working so hard? I was never fascinated by expensive clothes, vehicles or big houses nor was my family dependent on me financially, then why??
Anyhow I pulled through my corporate life for 6 years when I met a partner during a trek, who was equally unsatisfied with his current corporate life. We both had one major quality in common, we loved Nature! Every aspect of it, the rivers, mountains, rain, animals, birds, ocean, trees everything. Of course we instantly clicked, got married and quit our jobs.
It was not a decision taken on a whim, we had landed on a job to manage “Tiger haven society” in Dudhwa National Park, which was started in honor of Billy Arjan Singh. From then on started my real tryst with nature. We spent about 2 years in the forest surrounded by wildlife. There were tribal villages nearby and in the forest. Not so surprisingly there was human conflict with the existing wildlife. Among many issues, I used to hear about cows, boars, deer and even elephants dying due to plastic ingestion. This was extremely disturbing for me and also according to me one that could be resolved with some consciousness. I realized that there was an influx of plastics from various sources and no proper channel for it to exit. I used to get infuriated thinking about the insensitive villagers and the government for not taking measures for proper disposal of plastic waste.
When I was having this revelation my birthday arrived I was given 2 big bars of my favorite chocolate. After enjoying my feast I put the wrapper in properly in a dustbin because I LOVE NATURE (Remember I am in a forest, it was 30 kms from the nearest town and 4 kms inside from the main road). My housekeeper promptly emptied the dustbin every evening. Once I just asked him, what does he do with the waste? He said he emptied it in a pit and then set on fire. Now that hit me… hit me real hard. I was astounded by my own hypocrisy. The real culprit was within me. Here I am from a city, educated, buying chocolates and the likes for pleasure, and judging the villagers for using plastics for their essential use. Moreover, blaming the government for not arranging proper disposal in such remote locations, knowing how cost ineffective it is and leaves more carbon footprint in the process. That’s when I decided first to practice and then preach. I started a plastic detox from my life. Slowly I started reducing the use of plastics, always fighting in my mind to find plastic free alternatives. That was surprisingly not very hard, with a little bit of forethought you can make the shift easily and the clichéd Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is an achievable reality.
About the writer : Shweta
I began my journey with traveling and witnessing nuances of nature. But that is my past. Today, I am trying to be a little more balanced just like the wildlife. I take any approach that I can to talk to people about the changes they can make in their personal lives to save what is left of this beautiful planet, education being one. Sometimes it is takes a toll but one can never do enough when to come to our real home. I believe awareness may not be a solution, but it sure can be a weapon towards this war we all are fighting, willingly or not.
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