MY IDEAL HOME

 MY IDEAL HOME Oct 30 2009

I pretended not to hear as my eldest boy pleaded for the nth time, “Mama, come to see me at our exhibition.” “Alright, alright, if Dada can bring us in the van, we’ll all come” I promised. And so, on a bright Sunday morning, after mass, we made our way to St Xavier’s Higher Secondary School where the students were hosting their bi-annual exhibition called HOPE (Help Our Planet Earth!)

Yes, you guessed right-the exhibits were on the environment. The usual issues were highlighted but what really caught my attention were the ideas which I could use in my ideal home.

Being an eco fan, I’ve always dreamt that if I built a house it would incorporate eco-friendly ideas and there they were, staring me in the face, done by the students themselves. I had designed my house without a flat terrace because I did not want water-logging, but rainwater harvesting was offered as a solution. One project even showed the run-off go directly into the well which would save me the expense of building and cleaning a tank. My garden, toilet and kitchen would generate vast amounts of waste, so vermi-composting and biogas generation were offered as solutions to careless dumping or burning. 

Electricity in the village is an ongoing nightmare but thanks to solar-powered cells, my house will have non-stop illumination and piping hot water. An alternative to LPG could be biogas or solar cookers. Now if only I could get someone to create a switch that turned all the lights off when I left a room and a system of ventilation so I would not need to use a single fan in this dream house, I think I’d be ready to build!

I was rather sad though to see so much use of thermacole, as this sent an anti-environment message. All of it has probably found its way to the nearest landfill as I write this article. 

Teachers should monitor projects like these so the message meant to be projected does not invite scorn or censure. there should be good use of biodegradable materials like cardboard cartons, old newspapers, etc. which are already on their way to the dump anyway.

One project had broomsticks used to make the houses which was not only neat but gave one the true feel of the way houses looked earlier. Another showed how waste paper could be used to make articles by a technique called papier mache. There was a girl who showed me a pen stand made with computer floppys - an item that contributes to e-waste. A chart displaying photographs of garbage dumped in and around Mapusa was an eye-opener as was a magazine cutout of discarded mobiles stacked up in a landfill.

Exhibitions do stir up the consciences of people and invite them to think and reflect on how they can make a change for the betterment of their own lives and those in their neighbourhood. If each one of us makes an effort to conserve energy in our own homes and intelligently use alternative means it could be a big drop in a mighty ocean. Bringing out food from the fridge two hours prior to heating beats using a microwave and definitely saves on gas. (we are a family of six but each gas cylinder lasts us nearly three months). When we wash clothes, the water from the final rinse is stored and used the next day to swab the house.

In the Bastora school project, I was impressed to see that water was saved just by the use of spring taps and sending the run-off to the school garden to water the plants. The use of fans is restricted to usage only after 11 am and on Saturdays, no electricity is used at all. Dustbins are placed around the campus to segregate waste and the wet waste is used for vermi-composting. I’m sure that with all these stringent measures being carried out at school, even at home the students practice eco-friendly habits.

The exhibition did bring out many aspects of the environmental problems and its solutions and I do earnestly hope those who saw the exhibits at St Xavier’s took back the message of Hope and will bring some Hope to our world, one dream house at a time.