‘Have to be more mindful of nature’
Actor Juhi Chawla found an innovative way to celebrate her son Arjun’s birthday – by planting 1000 trees – as part of the Cauvery Calling project by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev!
Revealing why she decided to celebrate the occasion with this thoughtful gesture, the actor says, “The lockdown in the Covid-19 crisis has been a godsend, as the city is cleaner, I hear birds chirping in garden, it has been beautiful. Now the traffic is increasing, I can feel the fumes coming back in...”
Reflecting on these changes, Chawla felt that it’s important to have a farsighted approach towards the environment. “When you feel those changes, you realise what you are doing.., you are not thinking far enough. If not for anybody, do it for your children. That’s why on Arjun’s birthday, I did this. I anyway help in collecting tress and Cauvery Calling (project). Since the last three-four months, everything went in a tizzy, and I wasn’t quite punctual, so I got back to that,” adds the actor.
Chawla, 52, does this on most special occasions, instead of going in for over-the-top birthday parties or gifts. And she has also done it to mark special occasions of her friends’ in the industry. “Instead of sending flowers which would die in three-four days, we plant 100 trees for whoever I want to wish, In a way, when they tweet it, someone, somewhere gets inspired and does the same,” she shares.
What scares Chawla the most is the menace of plastic pollution and its damaging effects on the environment. “What micro-plastic is going to do, and it’s already doing it. It’s going to increase, and even our vegetables will be filled with it. Ever since I came to know all of that, I started doing this. We have to be more mindful of nature and what we are doing to it,” says the actor.