Thursday 9 February 2012

Reflections? Learnings? More like Change in Mindset


I didn’t even realize how much I’d grown out-of-touch with my passion for sustainability till this course happened. I’ve always tried to be environment-conscious, probably because of the values I picked up in my School, where being an environment-aiding, self-sustaining community was given a huge importance. But for whatever reasons, I’d stopped being that conscious of my actions and their consequences. Until a week back that is!

That, I feel is the biggest learning I can take from this, or any course, because that realization of the loss of my consciousness and my subsequent attempt at amending the same is something that shall stay with me for life. Not that that means I’m doing big, huge things, but the little, little actions that may just be a drop in the ocean but are also the building blocks of the same ocean.

Last week when I bought groceries, I realised that I had no immediate use for the cardboard boxes, which is why I’d throw them away, rendering them utterly useless and adding to the waste. Then, when I needed them for projects, I’d end up buying fresh cardboard. So, this time I decided to hoard those boxes and hopefully, will be able to put them to use before I run out of room space! I’ve stopped overcharging my laptop and make it a point to switch off all plug points when I leave class, if I’m the last one to leave. Also, I got my mother interested in getting a bio-conversion chamber constructed at home and switching to the eco-friendlier “soap nuts” from detergent. If nothing else, I have convinced her to at least start by not dumping organic waste, but rather decomposing it, even if the manure is not used.

On a different but related note, I was extremely inspired by the products of “Thunk in India” both as a designer and as a customer because of the amazing balance of aesthetics and sustainability in their products. I remember having seen products made of tetra packs etc. before and lamenting that no one would buy them because they were just too darn ugly for people to actually be comfortable using them. At that point, I’d felt really bad about the fact that despite the designer’s intentions being honorable, the products wouldn’t do well, at which point I lost hope for sustainability at some level. I think “Thunk in India” managed to resurrect that hope of mine and how!

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