ThinkYuvaas efforts do not start and end with a single showcase event. It hopes to be able to conduct a series of activities that not only make people aware of its objectives but also give it a direction to follow and keep up the promises.
World Environment Day
ThinkYuva Rally a World Environment Day, 5th June
Talking about achangea is one thinga
Doing something to bring it about is another!
We often complain about the littered streets in India, plastic, dump and filth on every corner. Of course itas all too easy to blame the civic administration. Who hasnat at some point wondered what the municipal workers do every morning when the city doesnat look any different any time?
It was only when ThinkYuva took up a part of their jobs for one day that it realized that no government or public body like any other corporation can be a success without viable support from its public.
On the 5th June 2008, World Environment Day, ThinkYuva descended upon the streets of Ahmedabad to see for itself the civic sense that the city possessed (or the lack of it), understand the reasons behind it and take a real step towards making the situation better.
50 students came together on the rally that flagged off with the green from Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner from Law Garden and dispersed at Stadium.
Gujarat Law Society —- Law Garden — C G Rd, Honest —- Municipal Market—–Swastik crossroads—-Stadium
The rally saw support from the AMC a Ahmedabad Municipal Market who not only sponsored 30 dustbins but also had a van accompanying the team to guide us on the route.
ThinkYuva team grabbed eyeballs along the way, stopping to hand out pamphlets informing people of our cause, planting dustbins at strategic locations and yes, picking up litter.
It was then that it was realized how easy it is to throw away that wrapper of chocolate you just ate or the plastic bag after your shopping. It isnat that easy to pick it up lying amongst all the garbage. Yet there are hundreds who do it everyday, for meager sums of money just so that they can live in a cleaner place.
ThinkYuva Pledges to support a cleaner and healthier city by doing its bit…do you???
Topic – “The Role of Youth in Protecting Environment Today”
Venue – H.L. College of Commerce, Ahmedabad
Date – 21st July (Monday)
Timings – 9.30 am to 11.00 am
The team has gone way beyond thinking and is in action now. After the success of the GO Green campaign as the first of the many precursor activities of the main event of ThinkYuva it was the turn for an educative Panel discussion. The team progressively worked towards another heady stimulus to hurry towards its goal attainment.
Environment, the world wide concern of the moment has always been there on the top of mind and ThinkYuva has already taken a successful step towards it through its Go Green initiative. The idea was to take the efforts to the next level and what better way to go about it than coming close to the cityas young brigade and get united for the cause. The venue was H L College, the alma mater of President, ThinkYuva and the cooperation was utmost. The place and the people all were geared up fully to host and participate in the environmental friendly discussion. An enlightening lot of panelists were courteous enough to come together and put forward their idea of environment conservation and share their valued views.
At the event all the big shots were present, including the eminent documentary expert Stalin known for presenting the crude social realities which are actually evils but are underplayed with their undesirability quotient, straight in our face. When one of the team members asked him, aStalin donat you think somewhere you kill the beauty of what ideally a film should be when you make such blunt documentaries?a The answer was that he cares for bringing about the truth and the crude reality in the first place and the rings and the bells can always come later, so aesthetics take a back seat in his films. On the other hand there was another expert whose forte is studying and interpreting the aesthetics of the films. Dr. Seema Khanwalkar, a semiotics expert and MICA faculty is an authority in her own area. However, the two readily arrived at consensus when the discussion was about environment. Ms. Dipti a literary figure along with the Dean of Environment had their own excellent views of the topic. A popular youth figure of Ahmedabad and the youngest VP of H L College Prof. Parag Patel had his own charm and was extremely effective in communicating the environmental concerns through his amusing anecdotes.
The panel discussion threw some remarkably effective thoughts and was completely successful in instigating student interest in the discussion so much so that some excellent student thoughts came forward. All the ideas were full of enthusiasm and reeked of an upcoming revolution. A few of the suggestions sounded so convincing and easily implementable; however we never cared to notice them before this. Keeping our mail boxes empty and not overeating when we go out were a few of the most easily implementable ideas which came forward. Why do we think we require an artificial fragrance to establish our identity? Perfumes and deodorants are undesirable for usage in more number of ways than one and so itas better to carry our original selves than borrow a smell and pollute the environment in the bargain. Another revolutionary idea came which said the usage of cars to come to the college should be prohibited and walking should be encouraged. Boycotting plastic bags and using paper instead, proposed by a student is another step which has to immediately taken.