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. )
