Describe a personal life experience that has had particular significance for you and highlights the reason(s) it was significant, whether it had an impact on others, and any insights or understandings you gained from it.

Human life is an assimilation of experiences it gains in due course of time. These experiences can both be positive in the form of success or negative when someone encounters failures. No matter the nature, experiences are always a learning curve for us in some form or the other. An experience that I would like to share today that had an indelible impact on me is the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. The pandemic has been an exceptional lesson for each human as if telling them that if we do not stop in our tracks, nature will always find a way to draw balance on this planet. Even though it was a threatening experience to witness the mortal aspect of human life in such close quarters, it was not the pandemic itself, but the human practices to keep ourselves safe during these testing times that caught my attention both at a personal and a societal level. At a time, when the world was busy saving their skin, through a virus that transmitted through the air, we all found our recluse behind plastic masks and sanitisers. Haphazard use of plastic and human ignorance together has left no stone unturned in spoiling the natural heritage and beauty of the nation. The problem of global-scale plastic pollution has escalated due to single-use plastics used in day to day human consumption. Plastic pollutants changed into one of the greatest threats to our planet even before the coronavirus outbreak, and presently it is intensifying with hygiene and cleanliness getting into the account. According to my research, India’s hand-sanitiser production capacity went up by a staggering 1, 000 times to 30 lakh litres per day from an annual production of mere 10 lakh litres. An approximation of about 2. 4 billion single-use sanitiser bottles is discarded daily globally as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The problems that we are facing right in the wake of the pandemic are complex, but we cannot forget about one while solving the other. I know that efforts need to be made in this regard, both by the government as well as the people themselves to tackle this problem. I even came across a tweet from the United Nations where the UNCTAD was urging people, governments and businesses to renew efforts to identify eco-friendly plastic substitutes, as the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the already existing crisis. This persuaded me to engineer an ingenious solution of 100% biodegradable sanitiser, intending to reduce the impact of the issue at hand to a great extent. With a better response at the local level, I wanted to explore the possibilities my idea would have at a global scale and thus participated in the UArizona Champion of Sustainable Development competition to give this idea global recognition. Fortunately for me, I won the competition and my efforts gained the momentum they required. I was asked to submit multiple presentations and papers to support my theory and the results that the test phase of the idea displayed at the initial stages. I was even invited by my school and educational institutions within close proximity of my residence to deliver social-awareness drives against the use of plastic. Furthermore, I motivated fellow students to adopt zero-waste policies and reduce the employment of single-use plastic in their day-to-day lives. In addition to it, I also formed a community group within my locality which encouraged people within the society to take a pledge against environmental degradation in any form and acquire eco-friendly ways of living. I, along with my friends, would conduct workshops, knowledge-sharing sessions, and cleanliness drives on weekends seeing children and adults working together, to take a step further conserving the environment and helping us to make this planet a better place to live. The contest proved to be of vital significance and an impetus to my efforts as it provided me with an opportunity on a global platform to raise my voice against the injustice we all do to mother nature. Getting recognized for my efforts motivated me to pursue similar actions in the future, and I wish to undertake such innovative pursuits to make this world a better place. Another key insight that I gained as a result of this experience is to not just work for my professional upliftment, but also simultaneously contribute my role in the betterment of society. I wish to associate myself with NGOs to assist them with conducting awareness camps that focus on the conservation of the environment and sustainable living and continue this trend even in the future during my time at the University of Toronto and beyond.