HOLI: CONSERVE WATER @ NID

On 1st of March, owing to an ancient tradition, all of us are going to commit an unforgivable crime; a sin in fact. In the biggest mockery of ‘social justice’ and ‘want’, we are going to let gallons of purified water go down the drain, along with the toxic chemicals that we will actively add to it beforehand. Even as we have a “Happy Holi” and justify “harmless fun, yaar!!”, some farmer in an arid part of Vidarbha, would have ended his wretched life of ‘unfulfilled wants’ by consuming pesticide. Hopefully, his death will be added to the already growing statistics, so that next year, during DCC, we NIDians will be able to quote these numbers and make an outstanding presentation.

The convenience of being born in the right place is truly amazing. Ahmedabad is urban, it is a metropolis and the leading city of a well-to-do state. Within this paradise, the NID campus itself is elite. Electricity, water, food, space, greenery – we rarely meet basic “wants”, “lack” or “scarcity” in the face. But what sets us apart is, that we come from different parts of the country, and therefore bring along a little slice of India with us. Collectively, we should be the ones who understand the country and its people better than anyone else. We have the good fortune to be in the business of bringing changes, offering solutions and adapting to changing times. Unless we take this job seriously, we are wasting the tax-payers money, which I am sure was invested in building NID.

*If Holi is about colour, we could have T-shirt painting, tattoo making, face painting competitions, cricket/basketball/football matches, film screenings.

*Brotherhood and bonhomie, can well be there at community feasts with dancing, singing and sweets or flowers instead of gulal and water.

Imagine what other alternatives we could come up with, if we pursued this cause seriously.

Holika dahan symbolizes destroying the demons within us. What is the point of a bonfire, if the next morning we let the demons of insensitivity and ignorance arise and indulge in “fun” that costs this planet a lot more than we can afford right now.

The sheer power of an entire community acting together is unbelievable. When we can exercise this power right now and move mountains, why should we wait for leaders at Copenhagen summit to make the changes. As NIDians, we are capable of defining what is “cool”, what is “in”, what is “outdated” and what is “so lame”. What starts as a simple effort to save water on the campus, could begin to change trends outside too. The buck stops here.