Sunday 10 June, 2007

Political fervour

There is another kind of fever, which plants can’t do much about. The acquisitive fever. Excess of kapha, according to ayurveda. Our times are excessively afflicted with this malaise. Combined with the pittic ambition to get ahead of everyone no matter what, this fever completely consumes. I know it is unfashionable for aspirants to sound cynical, but I do think being concerned about corruption is as green as it can get.

We were invited by ITC Maurya Sheraton to participate in an exhibition marking the environment day. We were thrilled that there were no stall charges, struggling as we are to get the Grasroutes business on its feet. There was a generous five star breakfast laid out for everyone too. With good reason we realised. We had a five-minute crowd that breezed in with Sheila Dixit, the Delhi chief minister, and after gorging on the food, disappeared soon after her. It became obvious that ITC MS wanted something of the chief minister and this ‘event’ was organised only to get her attention and approval. Her escort stopped at length at the ITC sponsored table displaying recycled plastic woven bags (they were pretty good, too). There was applause and camera. Our payoff was the ‘free stall’ for five minutes of attention, air-conditioned insides to cool off in the 43 degree outdoors: sufficient, they reckoned, for the week of dizzy preparation it took to be a ‘major’ environmental event. What about spreading awareness on environmental issues? They did serve organic fruit for ‘breakfast’ to a whole crowd of school children.

We were sad to see old hands like CSR, Developmental Alternatives, and TERI given the same treatment। Or maybe sadness is wasted… who knows what politics brew in these valueless times. On a bright note, there were a couple of people who came up and wanted to know about the weeds we’d displayed. There were a handful that stopped at the stalls to know and understand.
And that should count.

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