How woke were you when you were 10? What were you thinking of? Most of us were busy figuring out what game we want to play — offline or online. Accept it. But 11-year-old Manya Harsha from Bengaluru is talking about saving nature and conserving the environment. Not just that, she has also come up with unique ways to keep busy during the series of lockdowns throughout the last year — and to top that she has made paper from vegetable peels and even denim. Yes, and she has done it all by herself, confirms her mother Chitra.
It started one day when her mother was peeling onions, it occurred to Manya that the peel feels and looks very much like paper. "So I thought that I could convert these peels into paper. I had, previously, used old notebooks to make handmade paper. So I had the basic know-how," she said. But her first attempt was not satisfactory. "The paper was breaking when you folded it. It felt too hard and powdery as well. But I did not give up. Next, I tried garlic peels and they were eventually a success. I added binding agents to make the paper more consistent so that it held together," she said.
Manya said that she hasn't taken anyone's help to accomplish this feat. Not even YouTube tutorials. "Over time I realised the proportions of the ingredients and how much water I should add and many other intricacies. I learnt it all by myself," added Manya. But she did get her basics of papermaking from YouTube. But that was two years ago, she said.
The latest on her list is denim paper. It's made out of your old clothes and is in a whole other league, said Manya. "This paper is made by mixing denim with newspaper and some additives. Unlike the vegetable peels, I don't have to boil this. It's a different process," added the 11-year-old student of Vibgyor High BTM Bengaluru.
Manya said that her love for nature came from a very young age because she grew up with nature at her grandmother's place which had a little garden. "My parents are also traveling bugs. We travel almost every weekend. Any place that has the colours green and blue becomes my favourite," said Manya. She carries all her waste with her and whenever she gets a chance she plants seeds from the fruits they ate during the trip along the road.
Chitra, Manya's mother, said that it's not just now, her daughter has always been inquisitive. "Whenever we went out, she had a hoard of questions. Manya's father always urged her to find out about it herself. 'Why don't you Google it?' he would say. And that's where she started getting to know a lot about the world a d what interested her," she added. Manya wants to be an environmentalist when she grows up and her parents say she has their full support.
This young sustainability influencer also has an Instagram profile that her mother helps her keep updated with her latest work. Manya has been actively participating in events to save nature since her first kids walkathon on March 22, 2018, when she walked from the Doresani forest to Puttenahalli Lake in Bengaluru's JP Nagar.
