Phew! This has been a month full of excitement and exhilaration with a few moments of tension thrown in for all of us. The fifth Green Schools Programme Award ceremony, launch of our new activity book as well as our brand new website—what else do you expect?!  By the way, do make sure you grab a copy of the book and check out our site. No one minds a pat on the back, right?

So we’ve just wrapped up the August issue of Gobar Times and as always, we’ve made an attempt to educate you about environment issues that need to be known. Hell yes, I won’t give out all the details but I’ll definitely let you know that our cover story on India’s dying beaches has left me worried. Will my four-year-old son be able to enjoy the sand and the sun by the time he is in his teens? He might just not. Definitely not if the current state of affairs is not amended—well in time. After all, people in Puducherry are living witnesses of the mammoth damages caused by human intervention on the 600 km coastal stretch in the region. Seven ports exist already and three more are proposed and people who have already lost their coastal paradise now fear a total collapse of its ecosystem. I read up a lot on the matter, spoke to experts, went through scientific papers but was plain, simple shocked when Kakoli Banerjee, a resident of Pondicherry and co-owner of GRATITUDE, a restored heritage home (barely a 100m from the coastline) told me that she is afraid of a possibility that during her lifetime, the sea might just reach the house. It would have already submerged Goubert Avenue and Rue Dumas, serene stretches along the coast reminiscent of Pondicherry’s colonial past, by the time that happens.

You know, some stories are not just stories. We get so involved while doing them that they occupy a permanent slot in our selective memories. This was one such story.