Lakshmi Menon — a goddess of small things making a big difference

Lakshmi Menon — a goddess of small things making a big difference
Lakshmi Menon

When an unprecedented flood devastated central Kerala in 2018, it was the fishermen from the coastal regions that came to the rescue of the marooned long before the Navy and the Air Force arrived on the scene. Words of thanks came for the fishermen and empty words like they should be given the Nobel Prize were mouthed by politicians. But one young lady decided to express gratitude to them by floating hundreds of paper boats down the raging waters as a tribute to the courage of the fishermen. And they were no empty boats to be washed away into the sea. They had sprouting seeds of trees in them which grew as the water receded.

After the water had receded, tons of soiled clothes from nearby shops were found heaped everywhere to be burnt after they dried in the sun. But the same lady, with her innovative designing skills, created little dolls out of them and distributed them all over the world as a symbol of Kerala’s resurgence after the tragedy. The "Chekuttys", as they were called, raised the value of those tattered clothes and made them more precious than their original value as dress material. Enterprising businessmen supplied soiled clothes to be turned into dolls that adorned homes in Paris, London and New York and also the dilapidated homes along the rivers that had swollen with bodies of human beings and animals. Even today, Chekuttys are a source of livelihood for broken homes.

The next idea that sprouted in her mind was degradable cheap paper pens, when thrown after use, turned into saplings of medicinal plants that provided green cover to the once fertile soil of Kerala, literally bringing back the greenery in a short span of time. Her attention then turned to the hundreds of grandmothers who were not able to earn a living because of physical disabilities and found a simple way for them to earn some money by simply rolling out oil lamp wicks with their wrinkled hands. The act of rolling "Ammoommathiris" in thousands energised their fingers and lit up their hearts. They supplied lakhs of wicks to Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the publishers, DC Books, who gave them away to those who purchased their Ramayana edition for this year’s Ramayana month. Actor Amitabh Bachchan waxed eloquent over Ammoommathiris and their innovator and her Ammoomma at a BBC event in Mumbai.

Latest creations

COVID-19, which aggravated after the floods, ignited the mind of the young lady again to make "Coveedu", tiny paper homes for lockdown, filled with candy and rations for distribution to locked down homes, bringing cheer to the gloomy atmosphere. Moreover, she made comfortable beds from scrap for health centres and homes for Covid patients, called "Shayyas".

The unstoppable spirit behind all these magical enterprise is Lakshmi Menon, born in a privileged family in Kochi, became a fashion designer and jewellery maker in San Francisco, but returned home to serve the poor and the needy through her social entrepreneurship.

True advocate worth big honour

One outstanding feature of all her creations is that they are all small in size, but gigantic in impact. That is why I call her "A Goddess of Small Things." Her impact in the field of environmental protection is greater than that of Greta Thunberg and other young people who angrily scream and shout at world leaders, aiming for the Nobel Prize for Peace. But more than them, it is people like Lakshmi, who make changes on the ground on their own initiative to save the environment, who deserve the Nobel Prize even more.

Lakshmi has received approbation and whole-hearted support from many individuals and some corporates. After I interviewed her on YouTube (TEA WITH TPS), she has received CSR support from some corporate bodies in Kerala. But surprisingly, neither the Government of Kerala, nor the Central Government has taken any notice of her. The government bodies shy away from her products, because she does not offer commissions or cuts to middlemen. Every penny earned by her foundation goes directly into the hands of those who make her products with their bare hands.

A quiet revolution in a corner of Kerala should grow into a mass movement, which may make PM Narendra Modi’s declaration of 2070 as the year of net zero-carbon emissions in India a reality.

(The author is a former diplomat who writes on India's external relations and the Indian diaspora)

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