Earth Hour was upon us! I’m normally one to take into all these global trends…the Livestrong band…live 8…Earth Hour….well, I’ve followed them all. I celebrated Earth Hour at college by switching off my laptop, phone, lights, fan…and even my cellphone. No cheating! It was good for 45 minutes…until I went with my gang for dinner to the nearby abomination of a restaurant. I sent out a mail to the college asking how the folks planned to make this happen. A classmate came up with a good idea of an acoustic concert, and we all know how I like to put up a good show (pun intended)….but then, other basic needs, like the IPL took over and Earth Hour went by our campus.
Now I am not going to accuse my fellow to-be-managers of being heartless when it comes to the environment and acutely selfish when it comes to the things that really matter, and believing that it is our birth right to waste electricity and arrogantly say this is meant for Americans and not us. No Sir no! I will not blame them for talking about CSR and environmental responsibility during presentations and interviews and ironically taking a course on carbon credits which is a good way of saying ‘Hmmmm….now how can I milk this Greenhouse-Gas Pollution bitch for some money?’…No…No….I will not accuse them of that either. I will not even accuse them of being short sighted and thinking that one person cannot make a difference to the earth…no ….no…I will not do that.
Ignoring these captains of industry (that will self-destruct….soon), I want to point out as to why India must believe it can make a difference. It is easy for us to say, the Americans did it this way and prospered and are now blaming us for their sins….but then, isn’t common sense supposed to kick in somewhere? This eye for an eye business has not only made us blind…but deaf…dumb ….and heartless. Good healthy Indians, who’ve come up through very nourished backgrounds, with access to education and food, and energy go about chanting stuff like ‘India is poor…many are starving and don’t have access to energy in one form or another…hence, why should we care?’. But my friends, are you one of those? I would understand this if a hungry poor man with no potential for the future said the same thing, but will not be sympathetic towards people with a plethora of opportunities on their hands….if we don’t make a difference, who will? Why must we follow those American Idiots to a derogated society?
It’s high time we stopped looking for self-f**king pity and calling ourselves poor. If you can, why not? And sending me mails and analogies with this fleeting regard for the many poor starving Indians who don’t get a square meal is absolute hogwash. So please, thank you very much for saving the Earth….Yes, we can't do without our petrol, electricity and all the other things we take for granted, but if 40 million people (the estimated number of Indians who are educated and live off the economy) for one hour do something different, I think we can save the Earth.
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