Green Green Green, Is it just a color with a wavelength of 520-570nm, an outcome of yellow and blue mixture or something else, perhaps more? My recent understanding of the term is imbibing a culture to protect our planet from further devastation with the mandatory primary step, Afforestation or planting more trees to balance the trends in climate change. Theory behind it is simple, plant more trees>reduce the level of CO₂which is the primary reason for global warming>prevent soil erosion and disasters like floods or droughts and maintain the ecological balance of the ecosystem which in reality is imbalanced immeasurably. Another advantage of planting especially for those living in the coastline is its role as a strong pillar to fight strong currents, rough tides and tsunamis.
2004 Asian Tsunami or Boxer Tsunami was an opener to the craving yet, dormant fury of massive destruction our planet has been patiently withholding since the start of industrial revolution in just one day. Thousands lost lives as the waves hit the Asian countries. Millions saw how seconds turned a calm, serene planet into a mass of unidentifiable debris of lives, property and agriculture. Though a rough count on lives perished has been entered in records, the reality is, we can never really estimate as the number of people drawn into the arms of the angry sea is still unknown. 
The day Tsunami hit my city, neighbours rang our bell telling water has come into the city; water has come into the city. My mom and I were thinking, how can water come into the city? We don’t get floods and what’s worse, even decent showers who had seemed to change their course of flow during the monsoons and honestly speaking, none of us even knew something like ‘Tsunami’ existed. As we switched the T.V, news channels buzzed with talks on Tsunami hitting countries, what it was, how can we predict it and what should be done? What started as a strong earthquake in Indonesia was about to unfold the hidden mysteries of our planets capability of destruction and certainly, made way and big waves into History and Geography books. Learning about all this was frightening, bottling ways of surpassing the loss deep inside to combat the greed of commercialization. One of my attempts was the ‘visit to Pulicat.’
Pulicat along with 5 other villages comes under the jurisdiction of T.N., a coastline with dwellers ignorant to the luxurious lifestyle of the mushrooming city. The villagers earn their income by venturing out in the sea early mornings, placing their handmade nets over a wide open sea, waiting patiently for their catch only to bring them back to the main land and sell at a negotiable rate in the market. For years, this has been their only source of income. Medical supplies and schools were not so big but existed and catered to any emergencies. Concrete buildings housing them was a barrier for the unsteady winds hitting in the evenings. Life was not exquisite yet, precious.
We travelled on the 28th November, 2009. Reaching the destination was exhausting and thrilling, just like the feeling one encounters when you watch a patriotic movie. You are soooo pepped up, ready to join the defence services of your country. Yipee!!! Closer and closer as we reached the remote villages cut off from the main grounds of bustled life, I got the glimpse of the first house or victim of the great Tsunami. Houses followed, arranged horizontally behind which you could see the sea and inhale that peculiar combined smell of salt, sand and sea. Shortly after stepping out, I realized that this is going to be tough. The sun was in its full form casting all its heat above our fragile heads, charring our skin with visible rashes in minutes desperately attempting to halt our mission. The sand wasn’t friendly either. Did you know that walking on sand was difficult? Yes? Think about hot sand then. For those who don’t, try it. Anyways, our mission for the day was to cover minimum 5 villages and plant coconut trees there.
On your marks:
It kicked off by making the perfect pit to shelf the 
young saplings and maintaining a proper distance between each to enable individual trees to space out with ease, spreading its roots and leaves wherever they felt like going. Our worn out feet didn't feel the pressure of bending or knealing on the hot sand. The only thought was doing our task of smoothening the cover perfectly just like how mothers clean their infants. We became parents too for that day, giving the necessary supplements for our little tree to nurture under the blue sky.
Get set:
After getting 150 pits ready, we just had to place 
the saplings in the hollow space. Hold on, it’s not over or simple. Before plantation, an imperative step when it comes to planting a coconut tree is always ensure the surface is clean, devoid of any sprouting roots. Removing by hands was out of the question, they are really tough so the razor gladly came to our rescue. Phew!!! Oh, I forgot to mention, you should only plant coconut saplings after the first shower just in case you want to do the same.
Go:
Each of us had our own sapling or worked closely in groups of two or three carefully placing them in the pit, sprinkling a handful of manure and later watering them. The villages covered were Arangem Kuppam, Koonan Kuppam, Nadu 
Kuppam, Vairavan Kuppam North and Vairavan Kuppam South, one being the last village in the border between T.N and A.P. 150 saplings were planted on that day. Throughout the hours of passion and tiredness, came huge satisfaction. We all felt achievers, proud owners to a once long lost moment of worthiness. Everything was felt within. No one applauded at the others contribution or said a word of what they did. It was a feeling which said, finally, I may not have accomplished something big in life nor compared to many who have constantly supported the importance of life and ‘Going Green’ of all. It was just a little voice within that said, ‘you did well’ and ‘you have more to do. Go home and come back to a whole new land waiting in queue for nurturing a green life.’
