This article reflects on a childhood lived with a built-in environmental consciousness, contrasting it with the modern emphasis on convenience. The author reminisces about a time when reusable glass bottles for drinks and milk, along with cloth shopping bags, were the norm, creating a cyclical and low-waste lifestyle. Reusing items like jars, newspapers, and old clothes was also commonplace. However, the article notes a shift towards single-use plastics and disposable packaging, driven by convenience, which ultimately led to a disconnect from the environment. The author concludes that while environmental awareness is now prominent, the practices of the past, such as reusing and reducing waste, offered a simpler, more sustainable way of life that we should consider returning to. (This summary is generated via AI.)
The Middle
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NEWS of our airstrikes deep inside Pakistan trickled in early in the morning on May 7. TV channels repeatedly flashed the little they knew. The red tracers on the screen, racing to ‘neutralise’ enemy drones, reminded me of an incident...
AS we drove around beautiful Mauritius, I was intrigued by the images of a bird in malls, shops, parks and on signboards. When I asked our guide, he smiled and said: “Oh, that’s the dodo.” He waxed eloquent about this...
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LIVING in a north Indian city that has high-rise buildings and high air pollution levels, I often become nostalgic about my childhood in Kerala. There was a river near the village that flowed throughout the year in the absence of...
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AS war clouds loom, the peepal tree above Pillar No. 918 — a silent sentinel at the India-Pakistan border in Jammu — is holding its breath. It listens to tales carried by birds from both countries. A bird from India...
In an era where news often reaches our screens in real time, it’s hard to imagine a world where breaking news took days to reach the public. Yet, that was the reality when I first stepped into journalism in the...
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