Simpler Times!...

Growing up in Delhi in 80’s, you lead a very simple, eco-friendly and minimalistic lifestyle. There weren’t really any restaurants or junk food joints around, apart from the monthly trip to the halwai or the ‘world famous’ moth-kachori guy, after your mum had picked up the monthly groceries, all packed in a gigantic canvas bag. When you were out, you drank from your own water bottles and refilled them wherever you found drinking water facilities. The concept of take-out or ordering-in wasn’t there either. Soaps came in paper packs, and there would be, perhaps three or four other bottles, jars or tubes in the bathroom. Everybody didn’t have cars. We all used buses, or the local trains even. And walked. We used to walk a lot too. Even the people who had cars, only took them out, occasionally- apart from the really affluent people, of course. Shopping, wasn’t ‘something to do’, but rather a chore, one had to tolerate on birthdays and Diwalis. Your entire wardrobe would fit in a half a standard single-sized cupboard. Bathrooms didn’t have toilet-paper holders, but ether a hose attached to the flush-tank or a tap on your right hand with a little tumbler under it. Diapers, sanitary napkins, panty liners, were not the disposable kinds, but rather the up-cycled old clothes kind. The sign that a family was well to do, was kitchens filled with stainless steel, glass, ceramic and stone. The only thing my mother ever wore makeup wise, was a bindi and rare single shade of maroon lipstick and a compact powder, on special occasions- may be thrice in a year. Kids had one room, where everything was shared. Since TV wasn’t there, apart from a couple of hours in the night- unless you were studying or eating, you were always outside playing with the neighbourhood kids. Terrace gardens, green patches outside houses, and streets lined with lush trees on either side was a norm. Homes weren’t redone every few years. Every single house didn’t have separate ‘play rooms’, ‘gyms’, ‘lounges’ and ‘offices’ within the premises. All spaces were shared. Everything was eco-friendly, minimalistic and reused, repaired, recycled, if not refused all together.
Then came plastic. And suddenly if you didn’t have ‘pearlpet’ filled in your kitchen, you weren’t modern enough. If you didn’t have at least 20 different items in your shower rack, you weren’t doing it right. If you weren’t using tissues, but a reusable hanky, you were considered to have questionable hygiene. Every time you stepped out, you bought a disposable water bottle, to avoid the ‘hassle’ of lugging around a dorky bottle. If you didn’t use TP, you were just ‘eww’. Nowadays carrying a disposable coffee cup, having an entire room dedicated to your wardrobe, hoarding at least on cupboard filled with shoes, another with cosmetics, are the latest status symbols.
If you ever happen to get your hand soiled with stool, would you just wipe it with tissue or prefer washing it? Then however did toilet paper become the more ‘civilized’ way of doing things on the pot?!
Especially in India, we have the option on zonal grocery stores- that sell in bulk, green grocers that line up on the road-side selling packaging-free wares, kabadi-walas, access to an entire treasure trove of herbs and plants that our ancestors have curated, customized for our genes, climates and nutritional needs.
George Clooney said in a movie, ‘If we had to carry everything we own on our backs, most people would own nothing.’ Our environment is carrying our loads for us. And we have been abusing it for our convenience- focusing our wants ahead of our needs. And there is indeed no end to ‘wants’. Ask the Ambani’s. I’m sure even the Ambani kids annoy their parents with demands like, ‘My cousin already has a private jet. Why can’t I have one too?’ Just think about how aloof and lonely we have all become, chasing the designer labels, executive posts and jet-setting careers that we have to schedule things like ‘family time’ now! Depression, addictions and other pre-mature health problems have become so common that that itself is depressing.
We are leaving all our wildlife choking on plastic particles, our oceans covered in miles and miles of thick layers of trash, our global ice-caps melting, sea-levels rising, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tsunamis, floods, landslides are occurring so frequently that they don’t even get a reaction from most people anymore, the only greenery you see in most urban spaces is the one obligatory potted plant in someone’s balcony.
And yet, if even half of us changed our ways and simplified our lives, we can stop the end of our planet we are all nearing at an exceeding pace. Even if one person gets inspired by your zero-waste efforts in a month, we are on the right track. So, before you think, “Everyone’s doing it, what difference would it make, if I don’t?”…
…Ponder on