From Caterpillar to Butterfly

As a child, in school, we all learnt to use waste items in our SUPW (Socially Useful Productive Work) or craft periods. But as we grew, mall and brand culture seeped in so much that what we possessed earlier, appeared trash. Even the workers, laborers and helpers stopped accepting what was being given to them as help. Everyone needed money. So things which were not used were thrown as trash. Even if we felt bad, very few of us had time to think, recycle, redirect or reuse. Plastic, chemicals and synthetic material made the trash toxic, leading to pollution and innumerable diseases. Mountains of trash were developed and Ghazipur story happened. It became an eye-opener for many including me. So ladies in my sector also started thinking about waste management. Our team found that sector 47 in Noida had already started working on it and so we went to understand the sector’s waste management process. There, at Vice-President’s house, we met Mr. Praveen Nayak, who had worked with RWA (R...

Sometimes situations are quite different from what we plan. While planning our Greece trip, initially we had planned a week for Crete, the largest Greek island, known for a culture and history of its own but Rhodos islands allured us too and we stole a few days from this one week and changed our entire plan. We were now left with three and a half days including travel time, for Crete. Travel time was much because our ferry and plane were from the capital city of Heraklion while the most scenic town of Chania, where we had booked our three day stay was about 3-4 hours by bus. Crete, they say, is a feast for senses! People are welcoming and helping, beaches are stunning and seductive, sea is crystal clear and cool, mountains are green and captivating and food is cheesy and lip-smacking. With little time in our fist, we tried to soak our senses in the beauty of Crete. We got the taxi easily, the night we landed in Heraklion, the taxi driver was not very comfortable in...