As I poured juice for myself this morning, I remembered the first time I had seen a tetrapak of juice. 20½ years ago, aboard the Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior ship. I was a little shocked that life for volunteers could be this lavish. There was good food and wine a plenty aboard the ship.
My own exposure to the world had been very limited (but I didn't know that back then). I'd never seen anyone eat meat for breakfast. Never been abroad. I thought packaged food was only for people who lived in remote cabins. I found food packaging wasteful and damaging to the environment. I was confused why an environmental organisation like Greenpeace would allow for the generation of so much plastic waste for a litre of juice. Weren't glass bottles of Maaza better?
1½ years later I was at the MIT Media Lab. The room I was in, had projectors pointing in all directions. Two even pointed to the floor. Some research with ambient projections was going on. All I could think of was, "Well, that's one way to blow your research grant" (projectors were very expensive back then). MIT was the first place where I encountered lavish breakfast spreads. People would wait for the research group that had ordered the food to finish first, then attack like they'd never eaten before.
This is me, an year later (2002), in a kurta I borrowed from Sujith Mathew and never returned, and a shirt that Tarun Jain eventually gave up on. Both garments are still with me, although I haven't fit in either for years now. I blame my current girth entirely on packaged food and prosperity, not a sedentary lifestyle 😂
My own exposure to the world had been very limited (but I didn't know that back then). I'd never seen anyone eat meat for breakfast. Never been abroad. I thought packaged food was only for people who lived in remote cabins. I found food packaging wasteful and damaging to the environment. I was confused why an environmental organisation like Greenpeace would allow for the generation of so much plastic waste for a litre of juice. Weren't glass bottles of Maaza better?
1½ years later I was at the MIT Media Lab. The room I was in, had projectors pointing in all directions. Two even pointed to the floor. Some research with ambient projections was going on. All I could think of was, "Well, that's one way to blow your research grant" (projectors were very expensive back then). MIT was the first place where I encountered lavish breakfast spreads. People would wait for the research group that had ordered the food to finish first, then attack like they'd never eaten before.
This is me, an year later (2002), in a kurta I borrowed from Sujith Mathew and never returned, and a shirt that Tarun Jain eventually gave up on. Both garments are still with me, although I haven't fit in either for years now. I blame my current girth entirely on packaged food and prosperity, not a sedentary lifestyle 😂