Dear environment enthusiasts,

I am back with another green experience to share with all of you.

Last week, I was invited to Sri Lanka to hold an environmental sustainability workshop for people across all age groups by a national organization that works towards the environment and community.

Before the beginning of the workshop, I narrated an individual situation to the participants.

?Imagine you were lying down on the lush grass of a sprawling meadow in the scenic hills of the Swiss Alps. You have just begun digesting beauty of it all.  You feel the dewdrop-wet grass against your fingers, your ears are occupied in the sweet chirping of birds and your nose is caught up in the intoxicating smell of trees and nature as a whole. It almost feels as though you rest in the lap of Mother Nature.

All of a sudden, nature?s melodious sounds are replaced by the raspy sounds of a running motor and you wake up to see that a bulldozer is raging through a nearby pine forest, bringing down trees mercilessly and creating mayhem all around. Apart from the ever-increasing noise pollution it is causing, a vast mass of smoke is spreading from the vehicle. You immediately begin to cough and choke in the thick air pollution.

In response to the unpleasant situation, you feel a mixed sense of anger and annoyance. This feeling that you experienced is something that Mother Earth has suffered from for the last two centuries. If she can go on to provide for our pleasant stay on Earth, don?t you all think that we need to return the favor??

The question left the audience thinking and pondering upon the situation. After a minute, I explained to them the cause and effect of the environmental crisis that our international community is confronted with.

 From curbing the greenhouse effect and the much-required divestments of the fossil fuel industry to the global energy crisis and the strong need for increased investments in clean energy.  I concluded my lecture with the fact that these issues are not problems that concern a specific state or region, they concern us as much as the concern our world leaders. It is collective individual action that has to become the powerhouse of global change.

After the lecture, we put our knowledge into practice.  Along with my sister Anishka Jha, an ardent environmentalist and  member of the Eco-generation platform, I organized an Upcycling Session.

We first took a variety of waste material that we generate on a day-to-day basis. The session commenced with the upcycling of drinking straws into marvelous necklaces and bracelets, after which, we went on to upcycle waste newspapers and magazines into a multi-purpose container for books, pens, files etc. In the last project, we upcycled plastic bottles, a broken hanger and an empty tissue box into a colourful flower vase. (In the pictures)

The next portion of the interactive workshop was the ?Eco-Quiz?, something that is inherent in all my events. The Eco-Quiz is crucial in ascertaining that environmental awareness has percolated to every strata of the audience. The session was indeed fun-filled, with active engagement coming from participants of all age groups. At the end of the quiz, we announced the winners with fervor and gaiety and they were gifted Tunza Eco-generation pens and paper pads while all the participants were given the Eco-Generation brochure. We concluded the workshop with a tree-planting session, where everyone planted a sapling in the backyard of the venue.

The success and productivity of the workshop was evident not only from the turn-up of more than fifty participants or the intelligent answers of the audience but from the pure enthusiasm and interest exhibited by the participants in all stages of the event and the natural sense of environmentalism and concern for Mother Earth that they adopted at the end of the day.