Yesterday, I was sitting on the balcony, eating my lunch. Across, in the school playground, I noticed the students were practicing basketball.
Personally, I am not interested in sports.
While munching on my lunch, I was casually observing the birds and butterflies alongside the ongoing practice session. There were around 20 students. Two were in the court, the rest sitting and cheering when one of them made a basket. The student who didn't, came out of the court, sat amongst the others while next student went in the court and played with the winner (the one who made the basket) and thus the practice went on.
In the scenario, the winner won twice, I thought ( he made the basket plus he stayed on to play more) and the loser lost twice (he didn't make the basket plus he had to come out of the court.)
I felt something was amiss. I thought the one who made the basket should have come out and the other stayed on, till he could achieve the goal, getting a chance to 'win' as well.
I tried to empathize with both the player's psychological state.
If one extrapolates the current game practising scenario to our world, which runs on the same principle I think, is this not why we (the humanity) is going wrong?
And then I wondered more: Why can't we have games where each player wins?
Is competition with other necessary? Why can't we better ourselves while competing with the self?
Spending the same energy in building something nicer than destroying.
Today I walked into the living room and smelt the burning smell. Nothing new for this time of the day because we are used to the school burn their garbage right behind their school building i.e in front of our building.
Today I felt the smell was more or stronger. I peeped out of the balcony and saw the school's maintenance staff were not just burning the garbage, as they usually do everyday but today they torched the whole school's backyard of overgrown dry grass.
Honestly, I have been thinking to get in touch with the school about it the first week we moved in here, (Eric being a COPD patient and all that) to ask them to find some other way to get rid of their garbage but till today did not do it....more than a year has passed already...
Thoughts going on in my mind :
- Its a school, are they not supposed to know it?
- What kind of example are they setting for their students?
- has not burning garbage banned by the government?
- the hope, that they would stop one day
and such, many other things.
Today, I thought better let me contact them and tell them about the pollution they are adding to the already more than enough polluted air. I searched for their telephone number on the net, found it and called right away. Got the principal on line. She picked up the phone in the first ring. Wow, I thought, its Saturday.
I narrated the story, she was like, I know but I don't want to know. Said she will look into it and will sort it out. Then she seemed very much in a hurry to put the phone down before I could suggest any idea. What with the exam right round the corner, etc. etc.
I felt a small sense of accomplishment that I took a small step and did something which can or may make a difference in the quality of air, for that hour every morning. Difference not just for me but all the people living in the building and maybe the whole neighborhood, the school, the students etc.
After the call, I took some pictures of the burnt ground and one fence down, i.e. our building complex. Then I wrote the following email to the principal and attached the images along.
Dear Principal. (withholding the name)
Sub : Burning everyday garbage/today's dry grass torched in your school's backyard.
Greetings.
I am Filomina Pawar.
I called you this morning about the subject mentioned above.
Thank you for your assurance in looking into the matter and sorting the issue of getting rid of garbage/dry leaves etc in a better manner than burning.
I am attaching some pictures to give you an idea how it looks, what's it doing and how it could be better ( look at the pictures, it's the same continuation of land, with maybe a fence in between.)
Please do encourage the manpower you have, to spend the same energy they are spending now - to make a better, greener backyard than in destroying it. Better experiment still would be to involve your school children help achieve the greener landscape (during their environmental studies) around their campus.
You can see the difference in the attached pictures. And YOU can make a difference. Wish you all the best wishes in making Hill Green, a real Green Hill.
With kind regards.
Filomina Pawar.