Pictures from the event
On Friday (5th February) evening, Akshay Kumar’s son Aarav was awarded for ‘Extraordinary Contribution by a Child’. The event took place at Delhi Sustainable Development Summit at the Taj Palace, New Delhi, where the 9 year old kid was awarded at the second edition of the Green Global Foundation Awards. As it turned out, Aarav held stage with some of the eminent dignitaries belonging to different spheres of life and occupying some of the highest positions in the corporate, political and environmental world. Each of them had a story to tell which led them to environment protection and Aarav had his own story to tell.
“These human beings are very bad. They are cutting trees’”, Aarav remembers stating soon after seeing Avatar. Narrating the incident that impacted him, the young boy made this statement in response to the destruction, mainly pertaining to environment, which was on display in the James Cameron film which is now the biggest money spinner ever in the history of world cinema.
While majority of cine enthusiasts, trade experts and ‘aam junta’, were happy debating the technical marvel and brilliance that Avatar brought with it, Aarav (who could well be amongst thousands of others kids who had a similar thought) picked up the point around environment destruction.
A statement like this makes one think aloud – ‘Have today’s kids grown up faster than one thought?’ In the world of unimaginable gadgets up for exploitation, hundreds of satellite channels, blogs, social networking sites and of course the exposure that kids, especially in urban India, are getting today, are we looking at an age where it would finally be kids, instead of grown up adults, who could well be the saviour of Planet Earth.
Of course this doesn’t take away the effort of thousands of professionals with brilliant minds who are working round the clock and across the globe to save the world from dying down. However, the statement from a kid here is something that is not often heard from a common man and this is the reason why it manages to raise a voice that is seldom heard.
As a leading celebrity from the world of Bollywood comments, “People from our age group of 30-40 have more or less as many number of years left for us. May be we won’t get harmed by what we are doing to our own world. But then our kids have wised up. They know for sure that if this destruction continues for another 30-40 years, their lives are doomed. And lesser said about the future of the generation that follows after them, the better.”
No wonder, it appears that kids and teenagers have taken up the matter in their own hands and are doing whatever little that is possible to create awareness about fighting the menace of global warming. In fact Aarav was recently awarded for ‘Excellent Contribution by a Child’ for his involvement in the reduction of global warming. Apparently he asked Akshay Kumar to adopt a village that didn’t have electricity and persuaded him to supply them with solar lanterns and other energy saving devices.
Not all kids can be expected to be this lucky to boast of a doting father who doesn’t just sit on a pot of gold but is also understanding enough to grant a wish like this. On the other hand the very idea about kids of this age having at least a thought in this direction is a good enough reason to celebrate.
Perhaps there may be thousands of other kids like these who do believe in the cause. Perhaps a few hundred of them will eventually come up with a practical solution and get support, both emotionally and monetarily, from their parents as well. Perhaps this would lead to a widespread improvement in the way inhabitants look at Planet Earth. And perhaps then, there would be far better and positive statements being made.