With the belief that a conversation can lead to insight, we listened to mother earth’s story through the voice of jhalam (water), as she connects us to the emotions and thoughts of mother earth through the ages. We first see mother earth as a peaceful abode of beautiful oceans, majestic mountains, and clean lands, where all living beings coexist in harmony. Initially, mankind honors, loves and values Mother Nature, however as civilization progresses, man finds creative ways to use the resources provided by Mother Earth, ultimately losing his innocence. Man’s love for his mother is replaced with lust and greed, giving way to selfishness. Scientific inventions and discoveries, while advantageous in the beginning, ultimately cause man to ignore the harm and torture he is inflicting upon mother earth, leading to further depletion and destruction of her once beautiful form. 

A parallel thought of the role of women in society emerges to depict ways in which women were initially loved, respected, and considered a symbol of divinity. Slowly women began losing their identity through the rituals and customs that define the union of men and women through marriage. Man treats her unfairly and inferiorly, due to his dominating and arrogant personality. His attitude of superiority also causes him to treat Mother Earth in the same ways, exploiting her for his benefit. He begins to gain more ego by building factories, mines, buildings, bridges, etc, and grossly misuses mother earth's natural resources, which is fueled further by the monetary profits he sees. 

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Soon this not only creates enough pollution to harm other life forms, but also creates further stratification between the human race, subjecting certain individuals to inferior lifestyles and several other disadvantages. Religion, politics, social hierarchies, land disputes, etc, cause conflict and ultimately violence between the human race, which greatly deplete mother earth’s mental/emotional state in addition to the depletion of her physical form. 

When mother earth realizes the hopelessness of man’s inconsiderate acts, she unintentionally releases her frustration in the form of natural disasters, which pose danger to human life. Although much of Nilam Pesinal portrays mother earth in a tortured state, the final scene is one of hope in which man realizes his foolishness and pleads mother earth for forgiveness. The show concludes with a message from mother earth advising mankind that harming nature for his benefit will only cause more suffering for his own kind. Our conversation with mother earth as depicted in Nilam Pesinal leaves the audience longing for Mother Earth’s original form, encouraging mankind to see the urgency in changing his ways upon hearing her troubled voice through the scenes. 

In addition to conveying their message through the art, Indisha wanted to incorporate something hands-on to make a change. Hence,  Plastic Free Chennai was born. We’ve all noticed the excessive use of single-use plastic bags throughout the world. In India, they often end up on the streets, in the beach, stuck in trees, etc, contributing significantly to pollution as well as posing danger to terrestrial and marine animal life. To reduce plastic waste in Chennai, we seek to replace plastic bags with newspaper bags, which are both environmentally friendly and cost-effective.