Hmm.. Sometime I really wonder.. Why did I come to US to study sustainability? Affluence and abundance cannot teach economy of use.
My teacher in class throws out a question on sustainable lifestyle and when all are silent, he goes on to talk about a mexican market where you get food in a plate made of leaves...!! Oh my God!! I cannot help smile at the irony...Sustainability is there everwhere in India, more out of compulsion than out of choice.
American create so much waste-toilet paper, paper for cleaning kitchen and mopping floor, paper plates, paper cups, plastic spoons, plastic forks, diapers. Thorwing food away is no big deal. The other day a teacher is explaining to a student that window air-conditioners could be more economical than central air-con for homes. We always do that in India. Just turn on the air-con where we need it and go without heating in winters!!
They talk about natural ventilation and cross ventilation as if they were things of the next generation..Maybe people have come a full cirle. they have tried making air-tight building and pumped then with conditioned air 24 hours and seen they dont work. We are just begininning to do it and will learn out lesson in good time.
Maybe I should gift my teacher a 'patte ka dona' :)
11 comments:
Blasphemous!! Blasphemous!!
... Some prof at CMU will overhear...
;)
Nice piece of writing, really.
sahi mein yaar here most of the thing goes like "dona" which we dont realise.....it will be really good if they can be made more sophisticated....
...hmmm... but a sophisticated dona would probably mean more of energy consumption...
means the actual charm of sustainability lost!
hey.. sustainability is not a charm. Its an improtant issue.
...So u mean to say important things are charmless?
Well, sustainability is ignored in India (..and more in west) because in its present form it sounds quite outdated, obscure and to some extents (sorry to say) boorish!... People at villages tend to go for more sophiticated plates rather than the donas at parties simply because it remains as a symbol of poverty and backwardness...
Such concepts work only when you add some glamour to it!
When Baba Ramdev teaches yoga, mostly only the so-called conservative 'uncles and aunties' and senile dadaji's participate... but when the same is served with well-branded Yoga&Reki camp in some 5-star spa sort of places... the 'progressive' modernists flock to it!
Its all about packaging and branding [ ;) ].
So, u need to add some 'charm' and glamour to the concept ...(like what Hindi movies do to say, 'Karwa-Chauth')...
Indian culture can actually become a charmer!
sophisticated in the sense ,more presentable......we can see in some south indian restaurants they keep the banana leaves on plate which i think helps in consuming less water for cleaning and is biodegradable.....
there are many ideas in making things sustainable..the thing is to give a thinking to it...
Hmmm...
Somehow I am in a favor of keeping it the way they are...
I remember my first encounter with a 'pattal' which looked like a steel plate with its corners folded like a thali with some burn marks on it. I am sure it is done mechanically by heat-pressing the pattals to a particular shape and size. I was disappointed, really... coz the whole fun of pattal is lost... In fact the smell of the pattal adds to the flavor of comestibles!
...and so much of wastage of enegry!!....
However, I appreciate the pattal-over-a-plate concept. I would appreciate pattal-over-nothing more!
Hot discussion guys...
I feel like actively starting my blog now!!
:)
Yeah.. branding and convenient packaging is importand.. but what I ment was that sustainability has gone beyond the domains of ethical responcible pratices and is about serious money and investement in future..
QUOTE--
"In the last five years, something exciting has happened in the green-building world. Conferences on the topic used to be love-ins, featuring hippies in beads and Birkenstocks, with friends of Dennis Weaver pitching tire houses. Okay, it wasn't really that bad ... but close. Recently, however, the U.S. Green Building Council1 has given the field a professional sheen, and helped it blossom. The USGBC attracted 8,000 people to its Portland conference last summer. Many were wearing suits, and the whiff of serious money was in the air."
And yes I love the fresh smell and furry texture of the pattal.
its always known what sustainability is but are there any signs in india that we are going towards a sustainable environment......i don't think there are number of sustainable building that leaves an impact on the viewer...........is that these are not really acceptable in their current form in a corporate world......it needs really a serious investment and an understanding that the sustainable things can give the same flavour.........
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