26 May 2015

Treehuggery

NAKED WOMEN. Do I have your complete and undivided attention now? Thank you.
Sorry to burst your bubbling bubble but I have some preaching to do. Bear with me.

I came up with a pretty funny blogpost idea (even if I say so myself) and I was typing it out (at work, as always) when this guy walks up to me and proceeds to rent a gaping hole in the delicate chantilly lace of my world.

I don’t know what prompted it but he tells me to go to Google Maps, switch to satellite view, and check out Bangalore. When I’m done, he tells me to take a look at the Thar desert. This is what the comparison looks like:


Can you see how Bangalore looks like a bald spot in Karnataka’s green head? It alarms me that my adopted city, formerly known as... wait for it... the GARDEN City of India, no less, is on its way to looking like a damn desert.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I have always been a treehugger and unapologetically so, and I’ve vowed to do more from today as well. Considering I have a LARGE number of Bangalorean blogger friends, I’d love it if each one of you to do your bit, a little bit for the city that is your bread and butter, your home. Simple things like...

  • Turning off the faucet when you are brushing
  • Switching off the lights and fan when you are in the other room
  • Disposing waste sensibly
  • Dropping ticket stubs, chocolate wrappers, and the like in the nearest dustbin or stuffing it in your bag to throw out at home
  • Reusing supermarket bags for groceries
  • Limiting the number of tissues you pick up from the dispenser

….will go a long, long way in helping ourselves. You know the drill. I'm not asking you to care about the environment, I'm simply asking you to do small tasks in the course of your daily life.

If you can go one step further and plant saplings and use eco-friendly products, nothing like it. If you can question why the BBMP or the local corporation is cutting down a tree, I’ll worship you. If you can prevent them from cutting it, I’ll be your slave for life.

Passenger sang, “Only miss the sun when it starts to snow....”
We won’t understand the value of that tree until you have to stand in the blazing summer sun while the traffic moves at a snail’s pace.
We won’t miss how comfortable the Earth is until… it’s not anymore.

If you are asking how one person saving a tissue a day will make a difference, I’ll give you the same logic that Sourabha, my beautiful ex-colleague, gave me: three hundred people in the building saving one tissue a day will be 1500 tissues a work week, 6000 tissues in 20 days. Tell me how many trees they came from?
If that isn’t significant enough a number for you, I don’t know what else can be.

We already are bequeathing a world filled with hate, religious differences, racism, intolerance, and a billion other idiocies to our children. Lets make an effort to NOT leave them in a world that is slowly rotting into non-existence. Lets make an effort in our own small, little lives.

PLEASE?




Linking to Jess's #IBOT and Natasha at Turn It Up Tuesday

Edit: 'Ed Sheeran' changed to 'Passenger'. Thank you, Rupasi. Pardon my being an ignorant ignoramus, people.

31 comments:

  1. I pledge too! In the little ways that I can :)

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    1. Thank you, sending baskets of love to Abu Dhabi (?)

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  2. I shall definitely strive to make a start in my hometown....and just WOW ! For the point made and the way it was made...

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    1. Thank you so much, Ma :) your first comment here!! <3

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  3. Every body knows all this, but we all ignore it... Sadly comfort has taken over every other value... :(

    PS- You got the song wrong... It's "Let Her Go" by Passenger :)

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    1. So lets get a little uncomfortable, I say!

      P.S: Damn :/ I wrote Ed Sheeran and Googled Passenger. GAH. Thanks for that!

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    2. Yup! It is high time!!!

      And no problem :)

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  4. I am a treehuger too. Me and husband are paying more rent than we need to because there are trees around our house. Hyd is a rock city. You hardly find any trees here. People need to plant more trees.

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    1. That is wonderful to hear. Keep up the good work, H! :)

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  5. Damn..That google map is haunting!!! We indeed need to do little things like the ones you mentioned.
    This reminded me of my grandfather...he used to plant trees like it was his favorite hobby. Sorry for not visiting your blog regularly ma!

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    Replies
    1. I know right, pulled the rug out right from under my feet.
      I love your grandpa as well now.
      Tcha :) what is all this formality man?
      Also, I started blogging more after you sent message :) So thank YOU :)

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  6. Well, I work at a place that is quite green, does its bit to spread the message of planting trees and going green and such, so I do my bit in a way. I do all the bullet points listed, Though I don't think I'll be getting you as a slave for life :P Friend is enough. ;)

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    Replies
    1. Good, good. If only more companies around were more invested :/
      Heehee :P

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  7. Also a tree hugger! Just outed myself! Here in Australia, we are lucky in urban areas to have excellent recycling and waste disposal services. This is suburbia though. I wonder why apartment buildings don't seem to have recycling chutes? ALL that household waste, going to the same place. I noticed this last year when staying in California, too. The very state that leads the way with plastic bag -free groceries, seems to have no building code to include recycling in apartment blocks. Why? #teamIBOT

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    1. Sending you treehugger love all the way from India :)

      You know all the things you talk about is a dream I want for my country? We still haven't moved past garbage piles on road sides.

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  8. I am already a kin to you in tree loving and your comparison only made me weep buckets. I knew it was and but never knew it was this bad :(

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    1. I know, me too. I keep thinking Bangalore has changed so much and that we are spoiling the weather and the city but seeing the comparison really hit hard. Rude awakening, it was.

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  9. I hear you sistah!!

    I love Bangalore and have seen it change from a green heaven to a concrete jungle. I am doing all that I can to prevent this from aggravating further. I am with you on this.

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    1. I'm sure you are more qualified to talk about how we are messing one of the best cities in India. Write awareness post no... Whatever little things people might take back from your post will help.

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  10. I am doing almost everything that you have asked here. I have saved a couple of trees from being cut down, not by the BBMP folks but by the houseowners. I have a few trees in my backyard. I compost the wet waste from the kitchen, use buckets to bathe, use water from washing veggies etc. to water my plants etc. etc. Hope each one of us can do our bit. It saddens me to see what has happened to Bangalore -- encroached lakes and disappearing green cover.

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    1. You have no idea how absolutely wonderful it is to hear that. My hat is off, Madame, I thank you for every last bit you are doing. So much love for you.

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  11. Already following it. I make compost myself and grow some veggies too. Cool post!

    I wish this would happen in India too :

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/20/france-decrees-new-rooftops-must-be-covered-in-plants-or-solar-panels

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    1. Brilliant! :)

      India is too busy deciding which religion is more superior and which gender is better and how much money can be snuck away without anyone knowing to think about things like this.

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  12. I had never thought about things like tissues! I am trying to be earth smart. There's always more we can do.

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  13. We have a poster next to the tissue box at work, that says, air dry your hand, save as many trees as you can.
    It hit me so hard, I have reduced the number of tissues I use, to a minimal.

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    1. That is a good place to have the poster at!
      Brilliant :) Good work, woman!

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  14. Little changes in our life styles can make a huge difference.

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    1. THAT is what every single one of us need to understand.

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  15. Why only Bangalore? Every city (or upcoming city) has the same story. Here Pune is the same, and now all the new buildings are getting their water by tankers !!
    If we don't break the nexus between the builders and politicians, this will go on.

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  16. interesting. everyone should become a tree hugger

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Go on, you can say it.