Living Your Values

It’s easy to compost in a city where the green bins are clearly marked, and it’s collected every Tuesday.  In this city, “organic,” “local,” and “fair-trade” are synonymous with “trendy,” and after purchasing one of these products comes the pat-on-the-back-feeling of environmental-consciousness.  I hate that I prefer shopping in the corporate stores here, where I can browse the big, air-conditioned, fluorescent-lit aisles with a buggy and fewer stares.  Instead of running around to different markets, asking the owner to retrieve each item from shelves behind a counter, and bargaining for the price if the MRP isn’t marked, it’s easier to be a sell-out here. 

My friend, an American expat who has been living here for 15 years, chooses the path less traveled.  The city has made slow progress to be environmentally-friendly.  Implementing a charge for plastic grocery bags is enough to make me remember to bring my own every shopping trip.  My friend goes a step further and brings her own teacup on the train, refusing to add to any plastic consumption.  However, not all Kolkatans understand the idea of public space and how it is the responsibility of us all to keep it clean.  Very little thought is given to what happens to trash, where it goes, who takes it there, and why it’s not good to throw it on the ground.  My friend, the green crusader, has taken up beautifying her apartment complex, turning trash heaps into flower beds, and using her own compost to grow a garden.  She is cleaning out drains filled with sludge and swarming with mosquitos.  She is clearing a decade-old pile of used sanitary napkins.  She is picking up trash every morning.  I admire and aim to be more like her.  It is easy to live your values in a community who believes the same things, but how much more effort is required to continue to live what you believe in a place that doesn’t.  She says it doesn’t matter, that she is the same everywhere she lives:  an environmentalist.