A Little Misadventure!

I was about 7 year old then, Manjanna 8 and V had just crossed 2. We were in my grandmother's place for the summer as usual and Manjanna's and ours were the only families in by then. Our coconut plantation was the best playmate we had - we created frog-leaps in the backwaters that ran through the plantation, we made tunnels in sand, we climbed the young coconut trees, we exchanged stories(mostly exaggerated) from school, we chased away the stray calves and so on. The cool breeze and the calm environment was so inviting that many a days we went home only for bath and food, that too when someone came to call us.

One of the afternoons like that, we were there and there was nobody else around. Our youngest uncle had gone home just then for bath and we three were roaming around. Noon time usually brought the water up till the embankment and that day was a little more than usual - we couldn't see the stones marking the embankment. Manjanna and I started splashing the water with our feet, not really bothered about V and we were hardly at it when I realized that V was drowning! All I could see was her face and two hands stretched upwards and I just grabbed one of them. But she was too heavy for me to lift up and if not for Manjanna's strength, I don't know what I would've done. We brought her up, shaken but not injured much except for a scratch on the chest. We went home immediately, asked V to keep mum about it, told whoever questioned that V's clothes had got wet while washing her hands! I was very proud of V for being so brave and supporting of the whole scheme and it was not until the next summer that we became over-confident and bragged about it. Of course we got scolded badly, but I guess that was more out of relief than of anger.

Red(-Letter) Day!

I've decided to switch to reusable sanitary pads. I'll try them first for home usage and then upgrade to all days. I know there will be initial trouble with drying them out, changing and cleaning them but yes, I'm determined to make this change back.

I say back because actually I'm not new to them. I used them till I was 18, primarily on account of economy and I had to pretend I knew what they were talking about when my high-school friends went and bought disposable sanitary pads from medical shops, wrapped in black covers. Actually in a place like mine, disposing biodegrades is easy - we just turn them into compost for our trees - but we just didn't know what to do with plastic so cloth pads actually suited us. But I became conscious of 'better standards' when I started my Engineering and switched to the dumping kinds. Now it's just turned a full circle for me I guess.

But I also realize that if you really want to make a difference to your surroundings, it's not enough if you just tick your box and say I'm done. You'll have to persuade others to do it too. I don't know too many people who I can talk to about changing sanitary pads but I want to talk about reducing plastic usage though. When I went to my place this time, the edges of our grounds were littered with plastic and it almost made me cry. People like Auntie are already actively involved in reducing this but universal apathy, she says, is frustrating. There are problems at every level. Usage of plastic covers is very very high(I found chips packets the major culprits) , people don't even want to segregate them(especially the urban population) and then finally dispose them anywhere they please. So, the obvious first step is to reduce the usage itself, right?

Relief!

K L Rahul, finally! People were almost treating him like a crook and finally some breather. Now all sorts of connections are coming out - people who trained with him in Mangalore, people who knew him in childhood etc. I have a connection of my own - I studied in the college where his father teaches! I wonder if he was one of the kids who used to come near our ground with their bats.

Where Do I Go?

At crossroads. Do I take the road that is supposed to hold promise or the one that love? My boss asked me not to lose sleep over it but I couldn't help it.