SPECIAL

A day in the life of an

Bittu Sahgal

I was born in the mountains, but have lived most of my life in Kolkata and Mumbai. In unique, powerful ways, both cities have a volition of their own, one that largely determines the direction in which individual lives unfold. In my case, I can state with certainty that it was the throb of the megapolis that decided the course of my life. You cannot be a lotus-eater in a large city. In Kolkata, at the ripe old age of 17, I would, for instance, rise at 5.30 am to get to St Xavier's College at 6 am where I would spend three hours each day learning commercial law, book-keeping and economics.

As soon as my college day was done, I would wolf down a make-shift breakfast and rush to sign the attendance register (9.45 am) of the chartered accountants firm, where I worked all day as an audit clerk. I was too tired by the end of the day to party. I found myself crawling into bed by 10 pm, so as to face yet another college/audit clerk day.

Fun times, you see, were over with school. I 'had to' give up playing cricket (a passion then) for it was time now to "build a career" for myself. Any time wasted would set me back, giving other, more industrious young people the opportunity to forge ahead and occupy the niche that could be mine.

Kids for Tigers

Photo: Joydip Suchandra Kundu / Sanctuary Photolibrary

It took six wasted months of a young life to learn that I could never spend the rest of my days in dark rooms looking after other people's money. But I still had to 'do something meaningful' because I had met the most wonderful girl in the world, Madhu... and I had to figure out a way to get financially independent so we could be married. So, I dedicated my life to that unassailable pursuit - making money. I became a salesman, selling an assortment of products including buckets, water tanks and ball-pens. At 18, I had my own motorcycle, Rs 750 in my pocket each month and a head full of dreams, which, sadly, no longer included playing cricket for my country. While hurtling towards El Dorado, nothing really touched me. Kolkata's garbage, its squalor, its ruinous filling of wetlands to cater to the construction industry, its abject poverty and polluted water supply were 'other people's concerns'.

Madhu and I did get married and we moved to Mumbai. I was not yet 23, we had a baby (Miel) on the way and no mountain seemed to high to climb. However, if Kolkata processed my childhood dreams into reality, Mumbai took me by the jugular and placed me firmly in the rut of the rat race. It took me almost 10 years to realise that I was not at the centre of the universe. Only when I crossed this Rubicon did I open my eyes to my country, its problems, its needs and its potential.

In the context of India's social and environment situation, when I ask youngsters what it was that motivates them most at this point in their lives, they often reply: "The need to be financially secure. Until that takes place, we will be of little use to society". Nothing changes. En route to business and financial schools and higher education, today's youth will have to find their own way through the environmental maze ahead of them.

On a daily basis, from morn to night, my day is occupied with finding ways to leave our planet safer for these young innocents. I write letters highlighting the connection between deforestation and climate change. I edit articles for Sanctuary that demonstrate through words and images how biodiversity helps maintain our planet. And I meet young persons every day of my life and they fill me with purpose. Of course, I also meet with lawyers, and accountants and politicians and businessmen (some of whom with which I work to protect nature, and some I fight against to defend nature). I find, however, that young people, by and large, are more aware of their universe than we were at their age. I also find them more sensitive and less egocentric. In this era of instant communications, where democracy movements are crafted via the media and the Internet, I rather expect they will discover their place in the universe much faster than I did. I wish them god-speed. The faster they manage to "fly over the cuckoo's nest", on strong wings, the quicker they will take charge of a world which my generation is thoughtlessly trashing.

Bittu Sahgal is the Editor of Sanctuary Magazine