Column

Times change not with the passing of years but with the changing of attitudes. And attitudes have changed dramatic-ally indeed, to so many aspects of what constitutes our daily life.

Time was when smoking was considered trés chic. It was a symbol of having arrived, or being one’s own free-willed person, not tied down by tradition and convention.

The wave of smoking became popular among young women, was only because... those robbed of a market as the West became more aware of the dangers of the weed, were tryingto still earn their money in the ‘developing’ countries where aping the West was still a trend, and where the women stood poised to find their identities. It was an easy trap to lay… Today, we know smoking kills.

But somewhere, I think there was a portent in the way things would turn, in the fact that, in all Hindi filmsat least, the villains always smoked cigarettes. Thesubtext missed us then, but is clear now: tobacco isa villain and smoking can create havoc of the most
villainous kind! Today what is true of smoking has extended to so many other areas.

Plastic, once the miracle wrap, the easiest carry all for everything from papers to sambar from the idli manat the corner to pani puri on the go… is today mainsuspect in the environmental battle for sustainability.

Plastic has insidiously worked its way into every aspect of our life, and in the process become a villain in its own right, threatening the very ability of the soil to breathe and create green.

Then of course there are all those other evils that are part of the system we call modern living: detergents, pesticides, soft drinks, junk foods, tissue paper… Each has its place in our life, and cannot be easily replaced.

Each came in with bugles sounding loudly aboutthe value they would bring to urban living, and each was welcomed and assimilated into our lifestyle. The success of this made it simple for the idea to percolate to the smaller cities and towns and rural areas, and finally become entirely Indian concepts.

In the process, some vested interests stuffed their pockets with money and laughed at a nation full of gullible people!

Today, we know better as almost all of India is paying the price for contaminated water, infertile soil, and obese bodies…

Shaking off these and other symbols of ‘development’
is not easy. Bringing back the cloth bag to replace the colourful plastic bag, replacing the disposable paper plate and plastic cup with reusable ceramic or steel ones is not as easy as one thinks. Convenience has become a byword, and wash and reuse are still
considered old fashioned and obsolete concepts.

It is time we woke up and smelt the danger. We do have a tradition that cared for what we lived on and off, that believed in reusing and recycling everything at our command. We need to bring all that back into our lives.

If each of us decides to do so in small but significant ways, we could, as a nation of billions, make a realdifference to what we have and how long we willcontinue to have it. Otherwise, the generations whofollow will have to learn to do without much of what we take for granted today!