“Wealth out of Waste! WOW! The Amala Bharatam Campaign is not only about mass clean up drives and awareness campaigns but also about exploring innovative technologies for waste management,” stated Br. Karthi, making a presentation at the TEDx conference during Anokha 2012.
Elaborating on this initiative of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math to make Mother India clean and beautiful, Karthi also spoke about the development of e-knowledge repositories and the construction of toilets.
He led members of the audience in singing a nursery rhyme ABC specially composed for the campaigners and elicited a promise from them that they would not shy away from doing whatever it took to keep their surroundings clean.
Also highlighting the need to convert garbage to gold was environmentalist C Srinivasan, Project Director of India Green Services. The most important resources include sunlight, manpower and garbage. If these three work together, then we can look forward to a bright India,” he said, referring to the process of converting organic waste to compost and manure.
Srinivasan has won global acclaim for his initiatives geared towards the creation of a better and a cleaner environment. His creative solutions for converting garbage into something useful have also resulted in income generation and job opportunities for many.
Creative solutions were showcased also by Narayanan Krishnan, a CNN hero. Krishnan’s organization Akshaya has served 1.9 million free meals to date in his hometown of Madurai. “We serve delicious and nutritious food and we maintain complete transparency in our accounts,” he noted.
The organization staffed by other young members also helps with other needed tasks – it has provided over 3500 haircuts and shaves and cremated dead bodies of nearly 500 destitute people who gave up their lives on the roads of the small town.
The students were touched by the work of these true heroes; they were also inspired by the art and music of other speakers in the series.
Internationally acclaimed artist Rahul Arya paid a tribute to Michael Jackson with exquisite sand creations depicting his dance poses.
Designed and made in India was the theme of the presentation by Abhijit Bansod, honored with the NID Designer of the Year Award in 2008.
Versatile musicians Ranjani and Gayatri who perform on violin and also sing their own compositions regaled the audience with classical Carnatic compositions in rangapuravihara, raga-alapana and abhang.
Others who also spoke included TV anchor Gaurav Kalra, entrepreneur Kris Nair and corporate entertainer and trainer Nakul Shenoy.
Describing the current scenario in journalism was senior journalist of The Hindu, Nirupama Subramanian.
“Today there is much corruption in media, journalists face so much fire, they tend to sensationalize even trivial news items, and people hardly read newspapers as they get news from other media. Journalism should be marked by a rigorous process of arriving at the truth, the right facts,” she said.
SEE ALSO
Anokha – A Mega Student Event
Green I Conference at Anokha
Illuminati Lecture Series at Anokha
February 22, 2012
Coimbatore Campus
