By Advik Jain, student at The Kalyani School, Pune.
I am Advik Jain and I am in Grade 8 at The Kalyani School. I had embarked on this journey thinking that I would learn a new thing or two, but I was wrong, definitely wrong. I did not learn a thing or two but a lot of things.
When I was in fourth grade I learned about pollution and my mission then was to bring a huge change. I started brainstorming ideas to help the environment because a small change eventually leads to a big change. So, I with my friends tried our best to stop pollution. We did campaigns and stopped bursting crackers on occasions like Diwali, etc.
The first day, when I joined the live video feed, I was in complete shock about my understanding of air pollution and the actual air pollution outside. The things that I got to know, from that day onwards were very valuable. The first worksheet that was shared, had me thinking about how I could help. Even though it was not a part of the worksheet, I became a pollution seeker.
That day, I put sticky tape on my balcony door and on my bicycle. After a few days, I found a lot of dust stuck on both of them. When I investigated more, it led me to be more curious. Days went by, and I got so much information. The KRUU platform has been very well managed. I was very thankful to the teacher who helped me clear my doubts. She explained each question to me very nicely.
After learning, so much, it was not a big deal to answer all questions. And the questions, I liked the most were the ones, where we had to do something in real life, other than typing on a laptop. I liked the question in which we had to make a poster. The KRUU platform was very direct and assertive. It has been well maintained. Since the first, for short distances, I have always been using my bicycle. I have to go out for tuition almost every day. When my mother asks if I want to go by car, I prefer a “no” because it makes me feel guilty of doing something wrong. I have created a community where I keep adding my friends.
We have started to give trees on our birthdays as return gifts. I have decided to do the same too. I live in Magarpatta City, a place known as Oxygen Zone. Having so many trees around, there is not a lot of dust but somewhat dust there is because of factories nearby. I remember a situation that had happened a week ago, where when we woke up there was a lot of dust because of factories nearby burning garbage. It was only a matter of a few days but we need to stop this because we all felt so suffocated, etc. My friends and I are taking steps to stop air pollution.
Thank you KRUU for the wake-up call.
