What Made Me Think, What Made Me Act…
On that hurricane-hit night, crouching in my dorm room with no power, trying to burn pieces of my old t-shirt for light, and having no means to contact my mother in Kerala 800 km away, I decided that I needed to do better.
Coming from the South Indian state of Kerala with a long rainy season that starts from Early June and lasts till November, rains are never something new to me. The best of my childhood and adolescent memories are playing in rainwater, making paper boats, soaking in rain for hours without even changing my school uniform when I returned, and complaining about my clothes that would stubbornly refuse to be a little less damp. Yet from the year 2018, rain and monsoons in my home state have taken a different meaning. Starting from the 2018 floods that ravaged the entire state over 4 months to the 2024 Wayanad landslides that wiped out two entire villages and over 400 people off the face of the earth, rain became a forebear of disaster, deaths, and irreparable loss.
And reading about these changes in climate during the COVID lockdowns that forced the country to pause every movement and liveliness, which again cost the lives and livelihoods of millions, I realized that I too was a part of the problem. I have since then, followed a vegan, plant-based lifestyle to limit my contribution towards animal suffering and carbon footprint. I simply thought I was doing my best and stayed content and a bit too proud of what I was doing. Only to realize that it was barely enough. And that I needed to do more. This epiphany came in the form of another natural calamity that hit the city of Chennai where I had moved to for my higher education in December 2023. Cyclone Michaung left the city, especially its poorer and densely populated areas in shambles. On that hurricane-hit night, crouching in my insanely hot and sweaty little dorm room with no power, trying to burn pieces of my old t-shirt in a coffee cup for a bit of light and having no means to contact my mother who was back home in Kerala 800 km away, I decided that I needed to do better. That was my moment of epiphany.
Since then I’ve participated in workshops, seminars, and classes on environmental protection. I’ve been actively trying to limit my consumption of plastics, nonbiodegradable materials, and power. I am an active member of the Sustainable Development Hub in my college and a member of their PR and Marketing team. As a student of literature, I have been reading more and more works on Eco-literature and ecocriticism. More importantly, I have realized that there is much more I need to do and that solving the climate crisis is a journey that requires a holistic change in our lifestyle, actions, and outlook.
A flooded street after heavy rains ahead of Cyclone Michaung's landfall in Chennai, India. Photo courtesy of Satish Babur/AFP/Getty Images