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Let’s Go # PlasticFree! Interhouse English Essay Competition

We make choices everyday that, in Winner – Jaguar House
some way or the other, affect our If you picked up the remote of your life and clicked the rewind button for
environment. Whether it's what we a few million years, you would whizz pass India's independence, Hitler's
decide to eat or wear, collectively as holocaust, the Mughal empire, the cultural boom, the industrial
humans, there is plenty we can do to revolution, the discovery of gravity, the victorian ages, the birth of Jesus,
reduce our carbon footprint and leave
more room for wildlife. the beginning of Buddhism and the war of the Ramayana to reach a little
girl called Maya.
This is why I strongly believe we should Maya was a cavegirl. She had unruly brown hair, sparkling dark eyes, a
follow the “Go #PlasticFree” trend. slightly crooked nose, permanently quirked eyebrows and a large radiant
Plastic never goes away. Today billions smile. If Maya lived with us today, she was that girl in every friend group who
of pounds of it can be found in swirling would lend you their notes 3 hours before an exam, she was that daughter
convergences making up about 40 who would write her father goodluck notes before an important meeting,
percent of the world's ocean surfaces. she was that sister who would kick a football around with her brother
Every year thousands of seabirds, sea aimlessly even though she hated it, she was that tourist who would listen to
turtles, seals and other marine every street musician and clap loudly and she was that person who could
mammals are killed after ingesting light up any room she stepped into. Of course, in the Stone Age, she settled
plastic or getting tangled up in it. You with feeding little lion cubs the rest of her food and occasionally saving an
can start cutting down on your plastic almost drowning rabbit from the stream nearby.
waste in a few simple steps: use Vivaan Turakhia
Everyone loved Maya.
reusable bags when you shop, ditch her mumma's soft features but only glimpsed the grey stone of her cave.
single-use water bottles, bags, and But, as always, she had a secret(only her brother Taran knew). It was a She counted the leaves on the banyan tree and hoped they would come
straws and avoid products made from good secret she hoped, but it was a secret nonetheless. back. They did not.
or packaged in plastic whenever Maya loved to paint. She would stay behind when the rest went hunting On the 24th day of hoping, Maya picked up a fallen rose and began. They
possible (e.g., select unwrapped so she could draw the tiger her father brought home yesterday. She will come back, they will come back not. They will come back, they will
produce at the grocery store, shop local, would sneak behind the caves to pick vibrant flowers and colour her come back not. They will come back, they will come back not. They will
cut down on online shopping). hands to perfect that green-and-blue butterfly she saw across the stream.
Annsh Navle come back, they will come back not. They will come back, they will come
Sharav Jiwrajka She would paint her family. Her mumma, who was her human version of back not. They will come back, they will come back not. They will come
The Future We Dream Of a hug, all soft smiles and kind features. Her dadda, who was her back....
rolemodel, all muscular and stern. But, most of all, there was just one
One would think that sustainability and inequality – both economic and social – could person who became the subject of every one of her pictures. Her brother. The last one
hardly be discussed on the same platform. Most people would be hard-pressed to find A little goes a long way She would draw him cross eyed trying to catch a running hamster. Or The will come back not.
any role equality has to play in propagating sustainability. But that is simply not the maybe he was trying to balance on the rope across the trees, with his It hit Maya like (as we would now call it) a freight train. Her family was
case. When few have so much, but so many have so little we tongue stuck out in concentration. Perhaps he was sleeping, or dancing gone. Tears wracked her body and she sobbed, fisting her hands into the
know it is an urgent callout for change. or even just simply sitting. He became the protagonist in her art, a soil, screaming till her throat was raw. She beat her chest, and stamped
Handling economic and social inequality is not just a bi-product of climate change; it protagonist who loved but hated her drawings at the same time. on the roses. She stuck her hands into a bush of thorns, and came back
could be one of the most integral ingredients. If we could just create a more equal Despite having learnt about societal problems like
inequality at a young age, it simply remained a mere term "Mimi!", he would whine, "stop painting the forest and the lake and the with blisters. But nothing made the pain better.
world with the least possible amount of economic and social inequality, we would to me. However, this soon changed at one of my squash trees and ME! Paint the lands far away from here, with animals bigger
have succeeded in reducing the number of people living in poverty and creating a than us and rivers so big you can't see the end! Draw dragons Mimi, and So, she painted. This time, she painted what she wanted. Maybe, just
world that could better adapt to environmental disruptions. tournaments. Being fortunate to have come from a family maybe if she painted what she wanted, she would get it.
where expenditures, such as travelling, food, hotels, have one-horned horses and big proper houses, not our cave! You have to use Maya decided to take it slow (better not jinx it, if art had power afterall).
A link between economic inequality and sustainability exists. That's undeniable; the never been an issue; I wrongly assumed this was the case your imagination, I know mumma and pappa didn't give you a hollow
main goal of sustainability has always been to reduce carbon emissions. for many. I was proven wrong when I noticed a group of brain" he would tease. But the sentiment was clear enough. He wanted She drew a yellow mango and went to bed. In the morning she woke up
Unfortunately, most of the carbon emission contribution originates from the more young, local children sharing the same shoes and racquets her to imagine her reality and her dreams in art. Not get stuck in this to a small yellow orb outside her cave.
developed, economically well-off countries while ironically, those that emit the least, for their matches at a competition. Despite all of them endless loop of forest, lake, trees, mumma, dadda, Taran repeat. She drew medicine for her blistered fingers. In the afternoon she
end up being the ones that inevitably face the brunt of climate change impacts. With being highly talented and even winning a few awards at But Maya never listened. She was scared to dream, scared to hope. stumbled across a plant that made her hand feel cool.
scant resources to put in place reliable infrastructure and rebuild their lives post an this national event, I had not seen or heard of them before Because what if she drew something and it came true? What if she She drew the rain and the thunder. In the evening, it showered pleasantly.
environmental shock, the economic gap just goes on increasing – a vicious circle with which made me curious as to why they did not participate thought outside her little bubble, and then her thoughts never returned? Maya couldn't believe it! Whatever she was drawing, came true!
no end in sight. If we continue to remain unequal, both socially and economically, the in more events. Upon asking them, they explained that What if her creativity made her want to run away and find those things If I was there, all I would tell her was that it was a series of coincidences.
continuing climate change impacts will unmask an ever increasing gamut of their parents perform menial jobs such as electricians, she hoped for? What then? Little did she know that it was mango season in the forest, hence her fruit,
vulnerabilities of the economically backward and slash this gap wide open. chefs, plumbers, amongst a few others and they simply do So Maya never painted her dreams. She just painted her reality until one the bushes across her cave were medicinal (that’s where her mumma
So it would seem the logical solution has to be as simple as reducing inequality and not earn enough to fund the expenditures that day in the middle of October. made her cough medicine from, it wasn't her picture), and there was a
extinguishing all our climate woes. But only if it were that simple. Cutting down tournament and coaching require. This opened my eyes to The sun was shining bright on Sunday the 13th and so her parents and small hurricane set to visit the area that night.
emissions and jumping on the 'new-age renewable resources' bandwagon in the the fact that inequality manifests itself in all aspects of little brother had 'gone to get the beef' for 'our little princess' as her All it was, was a series of coincedences, not Maya's drawings.
presence of an unstable economic situation will end up resulting in greater social society and we as individuals must take steps to bridge this dadda would say. Maya stayed behind, of course she did. She was going But, she didn't know that did she?
exclusion – essentially a widening social inequality. The rich now will have access to gap. It is our duty to spread awareness and educate people to paint! And she did. The flowers were picked(orange, crimson, navy,
goods and benefits that the ones down the socio-economic ladder can lay no privilege on the magnitude of this issue. We must encourage our green, yellow, purple and black), water was collected, chalk was scraped So, she kept drawing her dreams, and so did the people after her. Piccaso
to. And the vicious cycle persists. These kinds of 'resource wars' are not a script from government to increase the minimum wage and provide and her cave wall was empty. Maya drew, and drew and drew. She drew his dreams, so did the cartoonists in Hitler Germany. A Vietnamese
the future – they already exist. We cannot afford to make them even more rampant more opportunities to the lower socio-economic classes painted the birds around her, the forest, the stream, the lake, the beef she soldier drew his dreams, so did a best-selling painter. A little girl on the
and increase social conflict. through improved facilities in education and health. As was going to eat, the fire for the meat, her proud father with the dead playground drew her dreams, and so did her artist father. People started
students, by pledging to provide a meal for an animal, and little Taran with the tusk of a Rhino as a momento for today's dancing their dreams too. Bharatnatyam, ballet, flamenco, Oddisi, every
Economic and social inequality aren't just topics you'd put on the back burner in the art form that emerged came from Maya. It came from her belief that art
underprivileged family or simply taking an hour of our time hunting expedition. She knew this was how it was going to be. It
sustainability debate. In reality, if concentrated efforts are made towards creating a happened every Sunday. can change reality.
to help teach younger, less fortunate students, we can help
more equal economic and social scenario, within a country and globally, it would make an immense difference. We must remember that no Except this time it didnt. The glowing orb in the sky became not-so- Maybe it can. Maybe it can't. But the hope we
foster a concerted, united and inevitably successful effort of the people as a whole
act of kindness aimed at bringing about a change is ever glowing anymore, and her family was not back. The birds stopped have in it will always remain with us, and that is
towards one common goal – the goal of permanent sustainability, harmony with the important, because there is a small Maya within
wasted. chirping and her family was not back. Even the hyena that called every
earth and with the future. Permanently. night 10 minutes past her bedtime roared and they were not back. each of us. We just have to let her draw for us,
Paarth Ambani forever. And then a bit.
Nidaa Kagalwala That night Maya went to sleep afraid, and woke up crying. They hadn't
come back. She slept again, and willed herself to open her eyes and see Ananya Srinivasan
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