In 2015 September, I happened to attend a seminar about
waste management held in Tilak Mandir. It was a welcome subject and I signed in
a register of attendees wishing to have more information on the subject.
Thereafter, a number of meetings were held in the BJP office about the same
matter, by the same people. Both venues, that is, Tilak Mandir were located
conveniently between my workplace and home. The programes also happened to be
very conveniently scheduled at that time- so I made it a point to attend
regularly. Soon ‘Swacch Parle Abhiyaan’ was born and I discovered that I was
among the cast of characters with starring role to play. Really at that point I
had nothing to say against it and things fell into place quickly and I went
along. So I made segregation charts, gave presentations to societies and freely
participated in discussions/ meetings/ planning and generally giving my time.
SPA developed very well in the following year. I made great
new friends and together we marched along spreading the message of ‘zero waste
from Parle’. That year was good- I
learnt so much about how things work- on a larger scale. So far my
understanding was only upto interpersonal and personal issues. But SPA gave me
an understanding of people’s thoughts and behaviours on a larger scale. On the
way, I figured out how actually MCGM works. I also let my creative juices flow
and started some other activities which indirectly encouraged people to get
into composting- like tree plantation and organic gardening. Loads of learning in 18 months!
Unfortunately for me- things began to unravel in the second
half of 2017. Time became short and the activities of SPA began to interfere in
my professional work. All Parlekars with a good attitude were already converted
to the cause and we could make no further progress. MCGM remained same- we
discovered and many of our great ideas lay dormant in their files. Interpersonal
issues started becoming prominent, so that it became necessary for me to take
measures. First thing was to put some distance between myself and political
people on the group. Next I had to
restrict my activities to Vile Parle East.
My patients are always a priority and I wanted to remain within jurisdiction
at all times except while on vacation- so that my patients can get help when
they need me. I thought- my profession itself gives me so much chance to do
social good, rather than spending time for SPA I should increaset he hours of
my work. I stopped getting into any new SPA
projects. Slowly thus I have withdrawn myself from the SPA and now restrict myself
to moral support.
My original agenda in attending the SPA activities was
actually to document the happenings through my blog. Because I got so involved
in it, I gave up on this. Had I continued the writing at that time I would have
had to write biased reports or else avoid writing anything that could bring me
into conflict with anyone. Plus writing about SPA would mean writing about
myself. My thought is not to write about myself and to avoid at least conscious
bias in reporting. Most importantly I want to write without fear. So the blog
was suspended.
Now, I think I can begin again
