Plastic Bomb

Plastic - A more convenient term for synthetic or polymeric materials. Given its plasticity it can be molded into any size, shape and form. Invented more than a century ago, this material has literally seeped in everywhere. There's not one place on this planet earth without a bit of plastic. Its floating around in the universe too. We say "God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient etc"., I dont know if God is really omnipresent but plastic for sure is.

Literally we are eating plastic drink plastic and sleep plastic. Dont we? Just think, how we begin our day...with a plastic toothbrush that has nylon bristles, a fancy plastic tongue cleaner with silicon handles, a toothpaste in a plastic tube, face cleanser also in a plastic tube, milk sealed in a poly pack, a plastic cup to drink, staples stored in a tupperware container, a body wash from a plastic container, body scrubber with a nylon loofah, packing food in a tupperware lunch box or wrap it in a clingfilm and so on and on.
Our breakfast, lunch and dinners have food served in plastic plates, water served in plastic cups, and even our babies are fed in fancy plastic bowls and made to drink out of sipper cups and plastic feeding bottles. Our textiles, food packaging, electronic items, pipes, paints, coatings, cookware, laminates, adhesives and the list is endless which has plastic in different forms. It has become a basic and most essential commodity in our lives.
But the same basic and most essential commodity is now turning toxic to the entire planet. Its basically a time ticking bomb. The truth is this material in a way made things way too easier, at the cost of an entire planet.

The one single property of plastic, plasticity has taken over all other industries such as wood, stone, metal, glass, ceramic and what not. I remember until the 90s, plastic usage was way too minimal in India. The major plastic invasion happened in the form of water bottles, poly bags, food packs etc. Now there is no looking back. We bring anything and everything in plastic. Do you know a million water bottles are used per minute around the world? And where do these millions and millions of waste go? Most of them into the oceans and some of them end up in the nearest landfill contaminating the groundwater. So when you go scuba diving sometime, dont be surprised to find a heap of plastic bottles instead of beautiful coral reefs. And anyways we are used to see piled up garbage sites in our neighborhoods. We know how to hold our breaths until we move away from it. But we dont know how to cut down the consumption of plastic in our daily needs.

Even the places we consider most sacred have also turned into plastic havens, as our Gods are also worshiped with poly bags,...all you see is tons of poly bags littered around in the temple premises. Haldi and kumkum get packed in tiny poly packs. I think not just the seabirds but also our Gods are suffocating in poly bags. On a festive day this doubles, especially while worshiping the snakes and serpents, thousands of tetra packs and poly packs are thrown at their shrines. I dont know if the milk enters the patala loka, but plastic did enter already. And our Godly snakes would rather curse us than bless. In the early 90s, we used to carry a beautiful flower basket made out of brass or bronze or steel or cane to the temple. It was such a beautiful sight. And the prasad was distributed in leaves which seemed very sacred. Now even the prasad is packed in plastic and it appears like any other food that you buy. Did it not loose its sacred feel?
Needless to mention about food and food packaging, even the vegetables and fruits are tightly wrapped in cling films in order to keep them going for weeks. Isnt it absolutely stupid when corn, bananas, pomegranates etc., which have thick peels to protect their insides are also being wrapped in plastic. Isn't this heights of package madness??

There were various campaigns to create awareness about the potential dangers of plastic usage, however there are not many ordinances from the government to curb this. There are many organisations who have been extensively campaigning against curbing plastic. Ironically, the Greenpeace International organisation which endorses environmental conservation puts up a hoarding on the eve of world environmental day saying 'Beat plastic pollution' and the hoarding was made of vinyl. If the endorsers themselves cannot get rid of this material, imagine the common people.
Plastic is dangerous than a nuclear weapon, because the effects of the nuclear explosion would last a few decades whereas our plastic waste lasts hundred of years killing the entire species of humans and animals and various other living forms.

Before you get choked and get buried under plastic, do not buy or bring in products made of plastic, if you already have them, do not dispose them off irresponsibly, try to reuse them creatively, and if you have to throw them, put them to recycle. Or please avoid using plastic.


Cheers
Go Green

Jyostna

Lets Go Vote!!!!!!!

As Karnataka goes for election today, I am sitting on my couch and writing this piece. I was about pen down my opinion on the political happenings that I observed. But I really felt I dont deserve that right yet. Because I have to be apologetic for not going out to vote. Not because I am lazy to go but because of not getting my vote registered here in Karnataka. Not just me but many of the neighbours in my community are in same line. Why have we not shown any interest in getting our votes registered? Because we believe thats not our business or because we think thats a waste of time hassle or because we dont really believe that our vote matters or because we dont have any interest in politics or because we think whoever gets elected doesnt really matter to us as most of us are from different parts of the country.  

Having said do we go out and vote at least in our respective states? Very very few of us do that. Rest of us have a handful of reasons to quote. So most of us do not vote at all. But do we expect better governance without bothering to vote? Of course that is our right isn't it? Do we have an opinion about the politics? Oh yes. Undoubtedly. Because we are all well educated and we do have great coffee table discussions, we do write proficient articles about politics and we do have well informed debates too without even worrying about voting. Most of us are global citizens you know and we are moving in and out the city/country due to our works...so that counts for a better reason to not vote. But wherever we live we want clean and non-corrupted governance without even exercising our basic right and responsibility.

Whenever we have an issue with the infrastructure of the locality we live in, we crib that our politicians are irresponsible, we curse that they shouldn't win next election but we will not make it a point to vote. Because on the election day, we don't belong here.We have better plans you know, we plan for a weekend getaway or fun outings or home party or do nothing and roll on the bed. I am sure these seem much better options than going out and voting. 

Our constituency contestants did not even bother to promote their parties in our locality as far as I knew. Ours was just one of the ignored communities in this constituency. There are quite a few like ours. My maid's locality is much bothered than ours because though they are not so literate and professional as us, they take time and make it a point to vote. We just brush it off saying they are paid for votes so they vote. Yes most of them are offered freebies for voting but who knows who they vote for once they get inside. They are well aware of who their political representative is but most of us really dont. Especially people like us living in gated communities are so untouched of the outside society unless and until we are faced with a problem outside the community that really bothers our living. Then we want the representative to respond immediately, and the police to be responsible. 

Because we dont really think its important to vote, our representatives also dont count us in when they plan for the constituency. Our ignorance is their advantage.  

It is extremely regretful for not being a responsible citizen. I feel the pinch and I want to make sure I register my vote before even complaining or expressing my opinion on Karnataka politics.

JaiHind

Loud Louder Loudest

When I sat at the doctors clinic located at a residential layout slowly turning out into a commercial junction in Jayanagar, Bangalore, what I am bugged with was the unbearable noise, and those noises aren't supposed to be so loud in a semi-residential area like that.

The unending honking, the bullet sounds from the multiplying number of Royal Enfields, the unstoppable auto rickshaws, the impatient car drivers rising the accelerators, and the resonance these vehicles created literally shook the ground beneath me. I wanted to request a pair of earplugs unable to bear with the nuisance. Most annoying was the honking and the Royal Enfield's bustling noise. This noise has become a crazy trend in the last few years in Bangalore that every other chap would love to own one. I just hate that motorcycle for only reason that is its noise while many people love the way it has a noise. Why are we so obsessed with noise? Why are we thought to honk so much while rest of the worlds sees it as a nuisance? My first stint of driving began in the United States, and honking was the last thing to be done there but strangely here, honking at every other street turning is first basic. Why are we so immune to loudness? 

Our emotions, our celebrations, our happenings, our films, our politics, and our funerals too are so damn loud. Loudness is in our DNA. The funeral drums and processions are so loud that they can wake up the dead corpse at times. Rest in peace is something very unsuitable to our funerals, rise in beat is perhaps the better word to coin. 

Our emotions are no less in this order, be it any gathering, we love to explode our vocal cords.After every such event, most of us loose our voice because we have to talk at the highest of pitches. Weddings are the best example, be it the procession of the groom or the rituals of the wedding, everything should have ear deafening background music. Not to forget the fireworks that explode with loud noise. After all they must be heard by the next hundred street's residents.

Our prayers too are no exception, because we believe that God is high up in the space and for him to hear our prayers, we must have loudest of hymns. Here we Indians are so secular and equal that all the religions love to play their hymns and conduct prayers meetings in the loudest way possible. We are definitely better united in this matter.

I often think that our Gods must have slowly moved away from our planet unable to bear the loving loudest prayers. And we have planned mission to Mars too to not leave them in peace. What to say about the festival pandals which are a killer way to express our loudness. We believe the Ganesha in the pandal would incarnate to listen to the prayers but offlate I am sure he prefers to stay inside the temple shrine to keep away from the loudness. Pandals were more of a neighborhood gathering exchanging pleasantries and singing lord's hymns which now turned out into dance hubs which play latest film music, that too with fast dancing numbers and people cant wait to jump on the dais to dance to those tunes....needless to mention about the immersions of the idols...liquor floats like a river, fireworks explode like bombs, music is played in its highest decibels of sound and am sure thats when the lord Ganesh would decide to vanish to another universe unable to tolerate our chaos. 

Having studied in a christian missionary school, I remember our prayer halls were a place of calmness, we as students couldnt move an arm or leg or sneeze or cough which would be distinctly heard in the quite silent hall. Most of the Churches were indeed calm and peaceful back in 90s, but now I guess we realised that Jesus is also unable to hear our prayers from the crucifx, so we decided to increase the volume and frequency of it so that he would bless us better. I am sure even Jesus would also have planned on a mission to Mercury or Venus by now. I always think that we scare our Gods with our over loud devotional emotion. 

Last but very important louder people are our political representatives. Parliament is the place where our representatives sit and discuss our issues and how can we not expect some loud emotion when they after all are representing us. This is the best place to witness how our members relate so much to our noise and display the same there. Sometimes they even break the mics as they think their vocal cords can be louder than the so called mics there. How sincerely do these folks represent us is something that we all should agree.

I could go on and on and on with examples of our Loudness which is disturbing and debilitating to our eardrums. Even in the age of smart phones, we did not chose to reduce the volume but increase it and bring it closer to our ears.

If only our schools insisted on the 'Noise Pollution' lesson, we would have been saved partially. I conclude this while I am sitting in my porch hearing the little bird chirpings and soothing breeze.

Cheers

Jyostna