The Green Mind

Monsoon had still not set its foot in Bangalore and I wasn’t carrying umbrella what I usually do in the rainy season. However, you never know when the rain god starts his showers of blessing in Bangalore. The time and dates are never expected. Being rainy season the showers of blessing of rain god is frequently expected. If you want the blessing in multitude, be there in the middle of the rain drenching yourself. But most of the time this blessing turns out to be dearer one. So, it is always advisable that save yourself from the showers of blessing in multitude from the rain god. I was literally running towards home so that I could avoid the blessings. Yet, sometimes the wishful thinking does not happen to you.

Before I could reach home I was caught in the rain and to avoid getting drenched I took shelter in the vegetable and fruit store run by Hopcoms. The freshly blossom jasmines fragrance was quite refreshing which was emanating from the flower basket kept next to me. The florist lady was selling Jasmines besides the store. For her, selling flowers was to earn her living and she did not discriminate human beings from gods or gods from human beings.

Well, the rain had really caught its pace and started pouring heavily. Amidst there came a mother and a child both holding umbrella trying to save themselves getting drenched from the rain. But splashes of rain drops from different directions were fighting to defeat their efforts. Anyways, the duo came to the florist shop and the mother asked for a small length of jasmine string perhaps to tie in her bread. Looking at the beaming smile and recognition of the florist towards the mother, it was fairly understandable that she was a regular customer. When the florist lady measured the Jasmine string and offered that to give her in the cheaper plastic bag, the mother casually smiled and offered her own bag to put in the flower.

Oh gosh! It was a paper bag, which was made out of old newspapers, nicely folded, side pasted with colored paper and cloth string attach to it to hang on the shoulder. Florist lady knew that she always carry such bag and refuses to take plastic bag. Florist was hesitant, yet today being the rainy day and it was pouring heavily, she offered her to carry flowers in the plastic bags. But the conversation ended in refusal note, the mother denying florist’s goodwill gesture and carrying flower string in her newspaper bag. I made an eye contact with the florist lady, she didn’t know what to say, but I could understand the goal behind saying ‘no’ to plastic bag. The mother knew, she would have to struggle in this heavy downpour yet the commitment to stand by the resolution was so strong that even the downpour could not shake it. And I was just reminded once again that a small act of ours can make a lot of difference. I could not stop appreciating the mother with paper bag denying the plastic bag.

The act, showed by example and not by words truly was on display in front of my eyes. Not being individual trend setter, I immediately felt at least fortunate to be the part of the organization which endorses such small acts towards improving our environment. Never mind, this was a consolation at that point of time. Yes! I joined Hewlett Packard, widely known as HP, which cares about the nature and the environment and believes in the philosophy of doing ‘small changes which can make a world of difference’. It has mandate to support the green environment, clean environment and a better world to live in. It uses recycled paper in its work environment, discourages the use of plastic, and encourages the activity, which can help change our environment from bad to good.

During the World Environment Day we were given the green stickers to paste on the computer keys to remind us that when we are done with our days work, switch off the computer and monitor to save the power. Utilize it better when you are at work place. It does remind me to switch off my system before I go home after the days work. Not that I am reckless and not bothered about the power consumption even if my computer is not in use. But looking at the green sticker on my keyboards on (Ctrl+Alt+Del) always gives me a call to stand by what I have decided to. I am sure it is helping all of HP workforce, when we think of our green environment and strive to make world a better living place. Not only this, there are many more things such as recycling electronic wastes are ongoing activity of HP office throughout the globe.

I would not shy to say that I have not yet done anything which can be milestone for anyone to follow my footstep towards green environment. But surely these incidents have made a hole in my mind where I have started realizing the ill effects and reckless use of unwanted materials polluting our environment. When I see the drain getting clogged by the plastic bags, I remember the mother and feel we could do the same thing what she did; saying ‘no’ to plastics and we could have avoided such things happening. But, no, we are slaves of our own acquired habits.

Nobody carries the habits from mother’s womb. All of us learn and copy traits when we grow over the period of time. We tend to imitate things what we see in our parents at the first sight. Therefore, unknowingly we carry the genetic traits of our parents and knowingly in subconscious mind we follow the characters and traits we see in them. We also pick some of the common habits and practices from our peer, colleagues, and friends. We tend to say ‘yes’ to everything which can give us momentarily help and relief. But, we need character to say ‘no’ to things which are harmful in the long run.

The green environment definitely is the framework of green mind, what the mother with newspaper bag showed. It’s the character what HP has decided to adopt to make small change towards green world. The impact is obvious, definitely in me, may be in you too. Now, whenever I see plastic bag, I could see the scene of newspaper bag mother coming in front my eyes again and again. I am realizing a persistent effort of change in my mind to avoid plastic. Slowly, as these witnesses are changing my mind turn into green, I believe this is going to turn even yours. I am sure we would not need the Greenpeace people to be savior of our green world, but our green mind can do it better.

(This blog post was published on June 24, 2009 in “My Space on ConnectIn”, internal portal of HP India. This blog post also won “First Runner-up” in the Green Blogger contest organized by HP India during the World Environment Day. )

Supreme Court Ruled for Muslim's Right to Adopt

The Supreme Court of India in a landmark order indirectly pushing for the Constitution-suggested Uniform Civil Code, on Wednesday ruled that personal law prohibition against adoption would not bar a Muslim from adopting a child if he chose the secular Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act route. By this ruling the minority community can take care and protection of children as adoptive parents and not as a guardian as was earlier.

Giving the judgment on a PIL filed by Shabnam Hashmi  nine years ago, a bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and S K Singh said the JJ Act was a secular law which gave prospective parents the option to adopt a child. "A Muslim was always free to exercise his option either to adhere to the personal law prohibition against adoption or choose JJ Act route to take a child into his/her family," the bench said, adding "To us, the Act is a small step in reaching the goal enshrined by Article 44 of the Constitution." 

Article 44 of the Constitution says, "The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a Uniform Civil Code throughout the territory of India." The bench said, "The vision contemplated in Article 44 of the Constitution, that is a Uniform Civil Code, is a goal yet to be fully reached." 

However, the Muslim Personal Law Board had opposed Hashmi's plea for a uniform adoption law that would prevail over all religious prohibitions. The board gave their elaborate arguments against permitting Muslims to adopt children.

The board had said that Islam did not recognize an adopted child to be treated on a par with a biological child. The Islamic law professes 'kafla' system under which the child is placed under 'kafil' who provides for the well-being of the child, including financial support, and this is legally allowed to take care of the child though the child remains the descendant of his biological parents and not of the 'adoptive' parents.

The muslim board attempted to give legal recognition to its religious 'kafla' system by informing the court that even United Nation's Convention of the Rights of Child recognized it as an alternative to child care contemplated under the JJ Act. The court, however, refused to restrain a Muslim if he/she chose to take JJ Act route to adopt a child on the grounds that the faith did not permit it.

Justice Gogoi said, "An optional legislation (JJ Act) that does not contain an unavoidable imperative cannot be stultified by principles of personal law which, however, would always continue to govern any person who chooses to so submit himself until such time that the vision of Uniform Civil Code is achieved. The same can only happen by the collective decision of the generation(s) to come to sink conflicting faiths and beliefs that are still active today.

"The conflict in thinking fuelled by dictates of religions was also the reason why the court felt the time was not ripe to lift the statutory right to adopt to the level of a fundamental right. It said, "Conflicting viewpoints prevailing between different communities as on date on the subject makes the vision contemplated in Article 44 of the Constitution, that is a Uniform Civil Code, a goal yet to be fully reached and the court is reminded of the anxiety expressed by it earlier with regard to the necessity to maintain restraint. All these impel us to take the view that the present is not an appropriate time and stage where the right to adopt and the right to be adopted can be raised to the status of a fundamental right and/or to understand such a right to be encompassed by Article 21 of the Constitution," the court said.