November 2007 Edition

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Riaz Quadir
Paris

LISTENING to Anita and Shallabh Ahuja in Paris, the fashion capital of the world, makes one hopeful. The irony intensifies when we learn what they offer: stylish handmade goods from lowly, windblown plastic bags that litter the bylanes of Delhi, using a low-tech but innovative process devised by Shallabh, Anita’s husband, a BIT, Pilani engineer. With zeal and magic reminiscent of Mary Poppins and her chimney sweeps, Anita is sweeping clean the streets of Delhi and converting trash into products that companies like Benetton, Ikea and Habitat are ordering. Listening to Anita talk about her company, Conserve, at the Alter Mundi Gallery in Paris was a bit surreal, as I hastily made my way from the head office of a major French pharmaceutical company, where I had been holding a workshop all day. On the mezzanine, lined with chairs and open to the public, the Ahujas spoke in English, translated for the largely French audience by young volunteers from design schools who have been shuttling between France, Germany, UK, Sweden and Delhi since the project gained pace.

The Indian Ambassador, Ranjan Mathai, after briefly introducing the Ahujas made an apologetic and hasty departure, as though withdrawing his august presence from a rather common affair- rag-pickers! Despite coverage by BBC, CBS, CNN and The Independent, Conserve is not a household name. Yet, in bits and starts Conserve has made modest gains and is continuing to battle the bureaucracy to get itself recognised as a craft that reduces carbon emission. Imagine recycling instead of incinerating eight billion plastic bags made annually in the US alone. Conserve could become a prototype for recycling trillions of plastic bags littering the planet and spread wealth to the economically deprived. The 300 families they employ now earn about Rs 4,000 a month. Anita’s ambition hasn’t been fully satiated by the fashion gods of Paris. She will be exhibiting her products at the Dali Museum. The message is clear: from the land of ascetic Gandhi, whose far-sighted solution was to reduce consumption, comes another: if you cannot give up consumption, do so with a smaller carbon footprint.

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