Paper Pile!

At the MCC cultural fest- Cul Ah! '09, we the members of greenShield held a sale of books which we made with our own hands, all the way from the coverpage right down to stitching it together. It was a hit where people appreciated our effort, the creativity of the cover pagee and the 50 books that we made were sold out within the first four hours. :)
Every semester, the unused pages of our science record books get waster because only 3/4th of the book , (or sometimes even lesser!)is used. Keerti & Madhu suggested that we collect those pages from our classmates and put it to use by showcaseing the ability to reuse paper and make usable books. At the end of the day, we had about 1700 sheets of paper.
In all the tasks of making the books, we were helped by greenShield volunteers and friends, Arunima, Rashmi , Spikey (vinay) and ( Sanchi to name a few) whose work was commendable.
The coverpages were designed by all involved, unique to their style. The pages were counted and separated into piles of 50 & 100 . Aishwarya & Rosh took over the task of punching in the holes using Aishwarya's punching machine. After everything was punched and piled up , we started stitching the books together and one by one everything fell into place.After a long, hardworking day, our books were ready with the greenShield message inside and only one thing kept us from finishing up.....That was the peak of it all, when we gathered around to perform the long awaited 'sticker placing ceremony'** even after a very long day's work, turned out to be fulled with laughter and screams!
**(Aishwarya's father very graciously agreed to print us exclusive greenShield stickers for our Paper Pile Project)

The paper pile was ready to be displayed and sold the next day at Cul Ah!'09. The books were priced between Rs35 and Rs 40 depending on the size & number of pages and also the effort that went into a particular book :P We also made bookmarks out of the papers we had remaining after the cutting process. Those were a hit too! as most people wanted a matching bookmark to go with their book. ha!

To summarise those three fun filled and rather hectic no to mention strenous days ended up with eleven highly satisfied greenShield members.

The most exciting part of it all was to have so many people (including our Principal and teachers) come back and ask for more of our books.

In addition , we invited the people of the Belaku Foundation* which employs village women in making paper and cloth ecofriendly products. We also invited the Kanyakumari Kalai Koodam (K4 -a women's self help groups which deas with articles made out of palm fibres), to come and sell their items.
It was exciting to watch gilrs walk around with chopsticks and earrings K4 and pretty stoles from Belaku.
Driven by the unexpected support from highly satisfied customers and our Principal, we are motivated to go on and go far with all that we have to do to " gaurd today for Tomorrow"!

-Nuts.

Sitting On a Croc's Tail

Wasn't easy trying to lift my enormous bag across the platform with people snoring away to glory inches away from my feet. I could see her standing with her mother, looking out for a familiar face so i immediately waved in her direction with my free hand.
I was too excited to say anything more than a high pitched "wats up!" to which i got an equally enthusiastic "can you believe we're actually going to do this?". The place we were heading for, along with a few other (yet to be acquainted with) youngsters was The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust(MCBT) in Tamil Nadu. For most people the idea of catching crocs, weighing them and possibly even hugging them, wouldn't sound too amusing now would it? Well we aren't most people. We literally jumped at the very idea of such a possiblity. I didn't need to hear an Ok from my parents, they knew i was a crazy child long before i knew it myself.
So there we were waiting for Gerry,Kaushik and the rest of the jing bang. Took a while for them to arrive but they did eventually. I looked around me , the people who caught my eye first were these two girls , one with bright red hair with what looked like quite a painful piercing through her eyebrow and another girl half my size with nearly twice as many earrings in each ear. "So this should be interesting", i made a mental note to myself.
Well the weekend was interesting, infact it was so much more fun than i had ever expected from any non-family vacation.The Madras Crocodile Bank was started in 1976 by herpetologist Romulus Whitaker. This bank was started to protect India's dwindling crocodile population and to preserve the Snake catching.The Crocodile Bank occupies an area of 3.2 hectares and has been established with an aim to protect and conserve the endangered reptiles such as Crocodiles, Alligators, etc. The wildlife reserve offers a green bed of lush tropical vegetation, which provides ample shade to the thousands of crocodilians. The main attraction at the Chennai Crocodile Bank is the crocodile conservation center, which is the largest croc-breeding site in India.the Madras Crocodile Bank boasts of harbouring the largest captive crocodile in India - Jaws III - a 30-year-old saltwater crocodile, 16 feet long and weighing about 575 kg. – and still growing!The MCBT is known for successfully breeding one of the world’s critically endangered Indian painted roof turtle, Kachuga.
During our visit there we did a host of things. We started with the cleaning of the Aligator and False Gharial pit. Then came the tagging sexing (identifying the sex) of the Caimans which took most of our day.
On the third day we worked with the marsh crocodiles(also called Muggers). It was a very systematic procedure we had to follow sort of like a protocol. Drag the net through the water from one end to the other, in the process trap as many of 'em muggers as you can. Then pull them out one by one, cover their eyes(makes them feel secure) and tape the mouth. If by any unfortunate chance you happen to forget this tiny step, be ready to go back home limbless. Now comes the best part. You need a minimum of 4 people per croc, so you announce which body part you want to get a hold of and on the count of three POUNCE and hold on as though your life depended on that hold. It isn't easy doing this while the croc under you swishes it's rough tail back and forth hoping for an escape.
Doing this repeatedly for nearly 20 odd crocs took pretty much the entire day, but not for a single moment did we feel tired(did i mention we were fed really well!). We had our friends from BBC running around with us trying to catch every second of this "Fantastic Experience" (as Steve Bradshaw would put it) on camera.
Sigh, this had to end eventually. but never will i forget that weekend with the crocodiles of Chennai, or the people with whom i had to enjoy each minute.We formed one hell of a team!
Come next May, you'l know where to find me =)

Many a paper & cloth bag

Nanny(Keerthi) calls me one day saying that we probably have someone who might be able help us with Our 'No Plastic' Drive in college. ' Belaku Trust' , a support group for women( in the villages around Kanakapura ) who make a living by making Gorgeous, simply Gorgeous Cloth and Paper Products.
For Green Shield i think this was quite a big (yet mini) project in many ways. You see it was the first time we were interacting in a very business-like manner with an NGO. Up until now it was all through phone or email , very informal throughout. But here it was suddenly making it to meetings on time,visiting their office in JP Nagar, giving them dates well in advance, placing orders , talking in terms of stock & money ...and well i think you get what I'm saying.
So Rosh, Nanny & i go for our meeting (2pm-4pm slot as Ishviene called it) at Koshys. We (I,for one) expected to see a strict woman in a suit, drumming her fingers on the table impatiently (because nanny said she had been engulfed in the Corporate World for more than a decade!) ...instead however we found three women giggling away to glory( over something Barb said i assume) at a corner table .
The above mentioned name , Barb .. should give you a picture of a really ADORABLE 50 yr old hilarious Australian volunteer(she insists on not being branded a 'tourist'). She along with Malavika (Graduate in CBZ from Christ College, another clown , if i might add. Newly recruited to the Belaku Trust as Coordinater) and Ishviene( the Head of them all).
We spent a good 2 hours discussing all that had to be discussed and even radiating to other (totally irrelevant) issues, starting from the teeth grinding traffic in our city, to a typical day in Dubai.
We struck a deal, they were willing to keep a stall in our College for 4 days during the Cultural intra college fest "Cul Week". The stall would be open to all , from students and teachers, to parents and random visiters. The products which included Notepads, books, files, pens , greeting cards AND shawls, bags, belts scarfs and many such things would be sold at a Special College Discount.
Two weeks later , it was Cul Week. I as always started panicking!! well i had every reason to, we hadn't made any posters or divided the stall work (like we had promised the Belaku peeps) but again as always, everything worked out Perfectly!. We made a grand total of Rs 27, 600 over a period of 4 days, in the process making many college goers happy , spreading our message of saying NO TO PLASTIC ; to switch to cloth and paper instead , spreading social awareness and also having fun in the process (PLENTY PLENTY!!!!).
Not to forget making great friends at Belaku, with whom we hope to work with,
on many occasions in the future.

Big hug , going out to our Green Shield Members - Keerthi, Roshni, Katya( the posters u made in barely 3 seconds were great!) meghna (with your publicising antics), Madhu (who bought so much from her own stall..ahah!), Sapna (our dearest accountant!) Natasha , Aishwarya (for being a stupid and yet smooth seller) Yogi!
So repeat after me,
"Plastic ain't my bag!!"
To see the Catalog of Belaku Trust products, click!
www.belakutrust.org

Chet.