Green souls have to acknowledge reality. #compost will remain gently clicked. Composting advocates are voices in the wilderness, their messages often echoing back to themselves unheard. So, in a crowded digital space where more exciting hashtags, some of meretricious character, are being peddled, how can their message get noticed? Saraswathi Shanmugasundaram, a resident of an apartment at Luz in Mylapore and a composting advocate, offers an answer, actually demonstrates it. On her Instagram page @onelittlepalette, the hashtag #compostart is as profusely distributed as colourful Ixora in a rain-drenched garden.Saraswathi, also wearing the work badges of an IT professional and yoga instructor, has experienced the misadventures pre-destined from every greenhorn compost enthusiast. Despite her bins producing underwhelming composts — one bin even got swept into a burglar’s heist bag — she stayed resiliently at the composting post and in time, became a composting evangelist. And just like that, she discovered compost could be a canvas. And that #compostart can bring the missing visibility to the green practice, in her eyes not at all optional but every household’s bounden duty.
Saraswathi Shanmugasundaram
