Creativity is making marvelous out of discarded

Contributor: Rajat Bafna

प्रिय सखा/सखी,

In this one year of my Unlearning/learning journey, I have heard often and also realized that "Times are urgent and we need to slow down."

On that note, I'm requesting all of you who are reading this post to take a pause and take a deep breath and release it with "wue-wei"  sound and with broad smile  on your face.

These days over social media and normal conversation, we easily label ourselves that we humans are destructive species. But it's not true. Humans are the most creative species and have all the abilities or 'jugaad' to live in harmony with nature. It's just the profit driven system which is alienating or deviating us from our true spirits.

Today, I am going to share a story of a grandmother and some women of Kutch, who came up with a very creative and innovative style of fighting climate change- it is through their traditional nonviolent weapons called hand-loom. Yes, the women folks here started up-cycling of waste plastic through weaving somewhere around 6 years ago.

Nanu masi- the grand young lady and my mentor under whose guidance I learnt the basics of plastic weaving from warping to the making of plastic sheets, is a woman who is full of life and zeal. She always brought back my focus when I used to talk about terrible things happening around the world and and she used to say: "Duniya me bhauth kuch galat hota hai bhai, tum dekho tum kya kar saktey ho, magach thanda rakhne ka" and I said "Bhale Bhale Masi" (it means ok in kutchi)

Talking about plastic weaving- it is a contemporary concept carried out on polymer looms known as pollylooms. The pollyloom is small in width and uses strong rayon as warp and assorted  polythene bags and industrial waste plastic as weft. The collected plastic is cleaned and segregated on the basis of color and quality. The cleaned plastic is then cut into long strips of put on bobbin with the help of charkha and then woven into material used for making various products. It provides employment for rag-pickers, cleaners and weavers. Beautiful school bags, water bottle covers, file covers and purses are developed from the waste as it has excellent durability. I remember a saying from my good friend: 'Creativity is making marvelous out of discarded.'

At last, would like to quote Margaret Mead: 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

"आया तबाही का  एक झोंका बुझ गए सारे दीये हा मगर एक दीया नाम है जिसका उम्मीद जिलमिलता चला जाता है."

-खोजी