small changes can lead to a big change

I used to stay in Kundanahalli 5 years back in a small apartment. The area which was in closer proximity to whitefield looked fairly neat(no so much garbage everywhere) except that the road condition leading to vibgyor was pathetic and I think it continues to be pathetic today. While I shifted , there was mounds of plastic bags in my kitchen rack and I wondered how much plastic I accepted and got home.


I moved to T.C palya to my own independent home at this point . My present home is slightly in a remote area, but I stay in a layout which has atleast close to 1000 + trees in an 23 acre area. God bless this layout for its greenery. My home falls under Gram Panchayat and not really under BBMP. I work as an electronics engineer in Mahadevpura. While I pass from my home to office , there are atleast 4 big garbage piles or black spots on the road. What has all this garbage have .. ? Pretty much only plastic . These spots make me feel sad , that we all turned Bangalore into a Garbage city... Though I wasn't one who was throwing garbage here.


My favourite past time and relaxation is gardening and I chanced upon Balaji Organics near to Mahaveer Chalet. Thanks to Sandeep , the owner, I first got exposed to making compost on my own. From here, I kind of completely stopped sending any food waste out from my house. He added me to a whats app group and I started getting to know of lot of eco friendly events in Bangalore.


I met Padma on the group and her energy as an eco-volunteer was awesome and continues to be awesome . Padma works as an IT engineer and has 2 young kids herself , but she exhibits an amazing enthusiasm. Padma exposed me to a BBMP event, composting Santhe and I bought a leaf composter @Soilandhealth.in. Through Padma we came to know that there is a re-use cutlery for free use in KRpuram rising ward. We have had atleast 4-5 events just in our layout using these cutlery for our functions. We saved atleast close to 1000 single use disposables. we donated small ice cream steel cups too so that people can use them. We had a birthday party for my son at a hotel , but we forced the hotel guys to use the steel glasses which we borrowed from KRpuram rising. The hotel guy obliged and was happy to use them . I don't know why people think single use disposables are in Fashion. The so called paper plates too have plastic lining inside …. Following us, Four families in our layout borrowed the same too.. So happy we were able to influence and change others. Here is a pic of my leaf composter....

After composting the food waste, my garbage got reduced significantly and I was sending the garbage out once in one and half to two weeks. I made another change, I stopped buying packaged food at super markets. We take empty containers from home as much as possible and re-fill at the provision stores. I purchase at super markets only those stuff which is not available at the provision stores. With this my one bucket of plastic/paper garbage goes out once in 3 weeks.


Once in a while me and husband eat breakfast outside when I am too lazy to cook or I end up getting late. My husband loves idli and we used to go to a small hotel to munch breakfast. We discovered the hotel fellow bakes idli in plastic sheets and atleast packs 600 parcels per day in plastic covers. We stopped eating idli. We confronted the hotel fellow and he says idli doesn't bake properly on cloth. I hope the health inspector really raids this place one day and charges him heavily. The hotel owner is making so much money for his kids, unfortunately money can't buy clean soil,air and water. Is "Time is money" really worth it ?


My connections on whats app group increased and I landed in Prof Nagabhushan's Back to nature group. Nagabhushan sir works at MS Ramaiah as a Chemistry professor and every week tries to organize a program on Nature or on ZBNF farming. Through him I attended Subash Palekar's  Terrace gardening workshop. This training was an eye opener on lot of things with Subash Palekar questioning the number of things we really need in life from the time we wake up. " IT Bacteria" was Subhash Palekar's favourite Phrase. This event was attended by close to 2000 + people from Bangalore and neighbouring farmers of Bangalore. The event was a zero plastic event with steel cutlery used for every meal. Kudos to Nagabhushan sir and his great volunteers for organizing such an event. I am sure we can all try for a zero waste event.


Social media took me to another Terrace gardening whats app group . Raghunandan Sir  and volunteers have help setup close to 252 Terrace gardens voluntarily in Bangalore on weekends. Kudos to him and all the volunteers for all their contributions. My gardening skills got toned a bit now.


After getting an invite to attend the birthday party of a Miyawaki forest in Railway colony KRpuram I met Praveen . Praveen is another volunteer who makes bio enzymes out of fruit peels,Jaggery and water. He was kind enough to come to our layout and do a free session. Bio enzyme is not made of chemicals and can be used for floor cleaning and utensil cleaning and bathroom cleaning . I  learnt to make them and use them at my home for cleaning purpose. I bid bye to the fancy cleaning stuff.
Bio-enzyme pic..

From April 4th , our wedding anniversary this year, we started carrying two bowls,spoons and glasses with us . Any snack we want to have outside, we would like to use them to reduce the single use disposables.


KRpuram Rising has Volunteers like Sreeram sir, who waters atleast 200 plants a day which don't belong to him. Purushottam Sir , who volunteers on lot more things and keeps a note of the re-use cutlery , He is a water warrior himself.


Bangalore is brimming with scores of volunteers who are all making a change. I learnt and made these changes. If i can make a change I am sure lot of you can do too..


While I write this article , the black spots on the way to office still remain..Through this blog , if I can make or see someone change, the purpose of writing this blog is served.


Dedicated to Sandeep,Padma,Praveen,Nagabhushan Sir,Raghunandan sir,Sreeram Sir  and Purushottam sir and scores of eco-warriors in Bangalore. U all are doing a great Job and are so selfless.