My world, my Earth is a ruin.
My mountains are eroding, my rivers are poisoned, my tress are succumbing, and my air is infected. I know it, I witness it, and I criticize it. I nod in denial. I blame environmentalist and government cacophonously. They know I need a bench underneath a shady tree to breathe in heat wave. They are well aware how serene it is to cherish colorful flowers being pollinated, they know fresh springs and organic food cures diseases which are eating up millions of bucks because we are blinded to find an expensive cure.
I curve into my lint couch sadly, and gaze over my stick on planner that says, a house by 2025. My priorities flip instantly and I begin gambling with money, job, economy and stocks like stats. Brick it up, I roar. Exhaling carbon dioxide – the vicious gas.
That is what we all do. We have family problems and financial problems, mental issues and personality disorders. BIG PROBLEMS. Do we count our atmosphere skinning, ozone layer depleting, glaciers melting, whales dying out of plastic digestion, trees chopping and natural habitat extinction as real problems?
Too big wheels to turn around? Forget that! Do we find that an ailing human being who works 12-14 hours a day to earn money for bread and butter in scorching heat DIES because there are no shade providing trees and air conditioners are too expensive, a real problem?
I say YES! As much I see my money and relationship issues as potential stigmas that can rip me apart, I see climatic change and environment degradation as powerful issues that can kill Human Ocean. Slower than nuclear weapons of course, but that is how negligent we are.
So here is the point. It’s US who had and have to do something about it. I am not to blame anybody else, but myself if I litter the roads and favor chopping down trees. If I clog waters with plastic and use vehicles for unnecessary transportation. I am responsible and will be blamed for the eco-death of a healthy planet.
I am a dentist by profession. During my period of clinical training, I had difficulty working during the month of Ramadan when I was fasting and couldn’t gulp icy water to beat the heat. Additionally, I saw trees within the campus being cut down for some reason so there was no shade. The sun sipped all my energy up and I reached home half wilted. People started skipping fasts, falling sick and it hit me hard in the face that we are losing everything in the face of environment degradation.
A dear friend of mine, Dr. Ayesha Javed sent me a text message one day. It stated that she feels we need trees for shade and we should start a campaign to plant some in the vicinity. I agreed, mutual ideas synergized. With the idea of planting 5 to 10 trees, I uploaded a status on social media in quest of a starting point and I was overwhelmed by the response. From professors to colleagues and juniors – the optimism over whelmed us. Ayesha and I started working on it. Budgeting, gardeners, permission, stock, man power – we took care of everything step by step. And within a month, we had a diverse team of 200+ volunteers with a good donation amount all set to plant 108 trees within the campus of KARACHI MEDICAL AND DENTAL COLLEGE. Here, Zahra Ali – the founder of Crops and Pots deserve a special mention. Dentists and doctors don’t know much about gardening after all!
It was 25th June 2018, the action day when we all winded up our OPDs and classes and gathered for the big task. Not to forget the week long pre-plantation hassle that the boys in the team took care of brilliantly (labor for deep holes, plant shopping, soil and fertilizers, water arrangements, etc). We ran out of water in campus and all the volunteers ran and worked like bees to water the plants with the minimum resources to prevent them from dying.
Each one of those volunteers were victors that day! They contributed their part in preserving the environment and realized that the potential of savoring the air will just grow from here.
Among the constellation, we also had the NORTH STARS. The leading stars. We knew that planting trees was the easier step. There was a lot of hype on social media, we got a lot of funds, many people were talking about us and it was natural to attract a lot of helping hands. Dr. Ayesha and I severely feared that after we leave, who will look after the needs of these plants?
We had our North stars taking up the job. The true grandiose! Our maintenance team.
Here is why they are the best and noblest of all!
They all are medical students battling with academic pressures, classes, labs, extended timings, water unavailability, staff non-cooperation at times, unexpected climatic extremes, exams and other icebergs of common health, social and physical problems but they are there every day for these plants! They nurture them with every bottle of water they fill to water them, with every pipe they stretch across the road, with every bamboo stick they tie the stems with, with every moment of perspiration they invest. I owe them big time! This soil, the air, this planet is what they are looking after.
The Newly added juniors; Fizza Shehzad, Nida Malik, Fizza Naqvi, Aqsa Adeel, Sofia Sarfaraz, Umme Aiman, Momina Tanveer, Reeva Kamal and Hamza Riaz.
Few years from now when these Neem trees will give shade to people in scorching heat, the fruiting trees will bear fruit and feed people, the stems and leaves will be lived upon by natures species – that is when they will be rewarded. For me, they are the finest of all humans – because they are playing a part in preserving planet earth for our generations to come. Thank you, Super heros!
Zubia Khalid
Mutahar Shaikh
Saba Haseeb
Ayesha Ahmed
Tamima Zahid
Wareena Saif
Let it flow... 