“The ice bucket challenge is just a fad...”

With regards to the recent wave of the ALS ice bucket challenge, I believe that it is just a temporary fad and will soon fade away. More serious concerns are clouding the world and a strong need is felt to change our mindset. Millions of people are dying of hunger and malnutrition. They would survive if a little food reaches them. Many are dying because of lack of medical facilities. So, let the focus not remain on any particular disease but on the entire world and how the needy can be helped.

The awareness raised more awareness on the importance of saving water and about preserving our natural resources, more than the actual disease. The disease is therefore just one tiny thread of the whole issue that the entire mankind is facing. Mother Earth is facing so much atrocities and she is reacting in the form of natural calamities.

It is time to understand in-depth and create awareness on saving Nature, and thereby averting many unnecessary deaths and diseases.

Social media is definitely a medium to reach out to people. Yet, people all over the world do not have access to the internet nor electronic devices. The message, on whatever issue, has to reach each and every person in the world. Methods on how to spread a message and how to reach it to every living individual have to be researched on. Also major issues like ‘how many children die of hunger,’ ‘how many children lack education due to poverty’ and ‘how many infants and old people do not survive due to lack of medical facility’ needs to be researched, discussed and worked upon.

One small change in our mindset to help the needy, save the environment and challenge other people to do the same would be a positive move towards helping the entire humanity.

-The reader is an Indian novelist based in Bengaluru, India.