An Inconvenient Truth

I borrow the title of Al Gore's Oscar winner for this post. I was convinced of the need for all the effort that we as individuals can throw in (except 'the kitchen sink' as the democrats might scream from their rostra) to save our precious world, when I saw the way my family members in Canada took it all seriously enough to separate their organic waste from plastic garbage, kitchen refuse from paper, trash from cardboard and metal cans.

THE PICTURE SHOWS PAM AND MOHAN AT THE CITY DUMP DEPOSITING THEIR GARBAGE IN THE APPROPRIATE RECEPTACLES [SAINT JOHN, NB, CANADA]

Listen to the Birds

12- and 13-year-olds of THE GENIUS scripted a play called Listen to the Birds - I referred to this in an earlier posting on this blog. Here are some stills from the play they staged at The Genius Annual Awards - if you had watched it, heard the words spoken, and had a little feeling in you, you would have felt a lump in your throat as a little girl says, "We have much to do. We have to educate a whole city!"

Directed by Anand Wilfred and Aunty, the cast included the following (in order of appearance):-

Anshul Gupta as The Oracle Owl making dire predictions for Indore

Sharvil Thatte as Vladimir, an old crane from Siberia

Ishita Garg as Natasha, a young crane from Siberia

Ameya Dubey as Decci, the old tortoise that lives on the banks of Sirpur Lake, Indore
Sankalp Arora and Vedant Dhakad as the indifferent Lake officials

Somya Jain as the little girl Aditi who wishes to clean up all the garbage by herself

Kartik Vyas as Raj, Aditi's friend, initially indifferent, later converted to her way of thinking

Vedant Dhakad as Gerome, a moorhen who sees Aditi's bag of garbage and flies away

The choir - a group of 10- and 11-year olds who together sang The Conservation Song

GARIMA AND ANAND IN THE CONTROL ROOM OVERLOOKING THE STAGE

THE RESIDENT OWL IS THE ORACLE AT SIRPUR LAKE, INDORE

HE HAS DIRE WARNINGS FOR THE EARTH

THE CRANES, NATASHA AND VLADIMIR ARGUE OVER MIGRATING

TO THE POLLUTED INDIAN WATERS; BHARATPUR, THEIR TRADITIONAL

NESTING PLACE IN RAJASTHAN HAS NO MORE WATER!

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AT SIRPUR LAKE, THE RESIDENT TORTOISE CONVINCES VLADIMIR TO SPEAK TO THE HUMANS. HE SAYS, "ONLY HUMANS POLLUTE, AND ONLY THEY CAN SAVE THE EARTH"

VLADIMIR SPEAKS TO INDIFFERENT

LAKE OFFICIALS WHO SHOO THE BIRD AWAY

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ADITI, A LITTLE GIRL PLEADS WITH HER FRIEND RAJ TO BE ON HER SIDE IN THE MISSION TO CLEAN UP THE CITY AND EDUCATE ITS PEOPLE. RAJ TAKES SOME CONVINCING, BUT HE IS WITH HER AT THE END

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DISCUSSING STRATEGY:

NATASHA, GEROME (THE MOORHEN) AND DECCI.

VLADIMIR JOINS THEM

NATASHA SPEAKS TO ADITI

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THE CAST IS JOINED BY THE CHOIR AS THEY SING "THE CONSERVATION SONG"

THE CAST TAKES A FINAL BOW

An important comment ought to be made at this point - Siberian Cranes decided a few years ago to seek new water bodies rather than visit a country where there is little realisation of the need for their form of life, besides thousands of others. All rivers are sacred to the people of India, but most gutters and the waste from cities flow into these rivers! Things are changing. If more children would educate more adults, I am sure we would lead the world in a global race for conservation.