Abstract

Nine years back, when I was in 8^th grade, I came across a quote by Albert Einstein which goes by something like this – "Imagination is more important than knowledge". I don't know why but it stuck somewhere very deep in my character. I always wondered why I had to learn about important historical dates when I could be using the time to do something original. One can always check the books in-case he/she need to know about history, isn't it? But there were some basic education standards set up by the law which I had to pass. Today, though, while writing this essay, I feel much free and hence I'm not going to talk about statistics. I'm going to share some of my personal experiences which changed me as a human being. I present a beautiful story of my village people adopting organic gardening, my volunteer experiences while teaching the kids in remote hilly regions of Jammu, and the origin of a movement in my college for resolving the food waste issues.

Essay

When I tell my parents that I want to show them the world after I graduate and earn decent money, my father always says that he would move to our village after he retires from his job and spend the rest of life taking care of the farms which he inherited from his ancestors. My father was the first man from our village to complete his graduate studies. He moved to a nearby city to provide me with a better education but a farmer inside a man never dies. I believe no-one can understand the real value of food than a farmer.

Summers' 2012

It had been over 5 years since I had visited my village, and to give myself a break from the consistent professional life in the urban cities of India, I decided to spend some time at the homeland of my ancestors. I was back at home after completing my second year of undergraduate studies. After getting permission from my parents, I packed my bag and moved to our old house in the village. One night I was invited for dinner by a village family and during our conversation on the Indian currency booming up in the international market and increasing market prices of vegetables, I suggested them the idea of organic gardening. I knew it could be of greater value to them but they refused the idea because of its non-conventional notions and less expertise. Next day, I started growing vegetables in the useless backyard of our house and two months, near the end of summer vacations, I was eating the organic vegetables from my garden. Few village people inspired by me also started using little space of their farms and backyards at home for growing the vegetables. After 6 months, I got the call from my father telling me that every home in the village grow and eat their own vegetables now, independent of the market. Nothing could bring me more happiness than being the reason due to which few hundred people create lesser environmental impacts by choosing organic food.

Summers' 2013

Education is the most common and powerful solution to change the ideas and beliefs of people. I was serving as an environment educator in remote hilly villages of Jammu when a little girl left a mark of her innocence intelligence on me. Maybe that's the way it is. We're all pure when we?re kids but as we get older, we get corrupt. Sometimes, the best ideas of the generation take birth in the minds of children. While teaching the 4^th grade students about how to plan properly before purchasing the food items to minimize the food wastage, the girl stood up and said – "What if I do not eat for a day?" At first, I was scared of her thought, and I told her that it would probably not make any difference to the national food issues. But the girl remained determined and said – "What if we all don?t eat for a day? If we don?t eat for a day, then 20 people, who need food more than us would get to eat." There was hope in her eyes which neither I nor the rest of students were able to ignore. Concerned about their health, I consulted a doctor and he said it?s okay for the children to skip a meal once in a month. So we organized a camp, which they still organize at regular periods, in which we all skipped our lunch, treated ourselves to the dinner and prayed to the God that no-one dies of hunger.

Monsoons' 2013

Sooner, with time, I grew wiser in my thoughts. My college has more than 2500 students eating all their meals in the mess of the university. The amount of food wastage was enormous, and the thought of the hungry people in the slums at the back of my university, left me sleepless. As the students of a college of national reputation, me, and my friends took the issue seriously. The amount of everyday food waste was enough to feed over 200 people in the slums. We started a system in which the left food is collected in lunchbox's and sent to the slum people and children in need. Presently, I'm trying to expand the movement in every institute, all over the nation.

These few events of my life, now define me as the person I am today. The happiness, of a farmer picking up little environmental wisdom because of me, motivates me to go ahead and work for people. The little girl refusing to eat for a day taught me no matter how small the impacts maybe, we must always do our part. The satisfaction which I get by feeding a hungry man in the slums helps me in sleeping peacefully every night. I don't exactly know where I would be after five years from now, but as of right now I'd just paraphrase Charles Dickens for me -

"It is a far, far better thing, that I do, than I have ever done
 It is a far, far better rest, that I go to, than I have ever known"