फूटप्रिन्टस Footprints

रेखामावशी अभिषेकच्या घरी काम करायला येतात. त्यांनी फरशी पुसल्यावर त्यांच्याच पायांचे काळे ठसे उमटतात, म्हणून स्नेहल त्यांना रागावते. रेखामावशी सांगतात की आपल्या झोपडपट्टीत रस्ते उखडलेले आहेत आणि पाणी कमी असते, त्यामुळे पाय स्वच्छ ठेवणे कठीण आहे. स्नेहललाही आपण असे बोलल्याचे वाईट वाटते.

As Abhishek opens the door in the morning, Rekhamavshi, who does the household chores, comes in and starts on the dishes in the sink. Abhishek has overslept because his cousin Sumit, visiting from Kanpur, kept him up late showing off his new project. Just then Snehal's annoyed voice comes from the hall, because Rekhamavshi's own muddy footprints have appeared on the floor she had just mopped. Fastidious about cleanliness, Snehal is irritated, and Rekhamavshi looks embarrassed. She explains that she doesn't get to work in an air-conditioned room, the road in her settlement is dug up so dust clings to everything, and she barely gets time, or enough water, to wash her hands and feet properly. Hearing this, Snehal feels a pang of guilt for having mentioned her feet at all, and recalls the worn, torn slippers Rekhamavshi wears.

अभिषेकचा आतेभाऊ सुमित त्याने बनवलेले 'फूटप्रिन्टस' नावाचे अ‍ॅप दाखवतो. हे अ‍ॅप कोणाचे पाय किती स्वच्छ आहेत हे सांगते असे तो म्हणतो. बाबा तंत्रज्ञानावर नाराजी व्यक्त करतात, पण सुमित रेखामावशींपासून सुरुवात करून त्यांना काही प्रश्न विचारतो.

At this point Sumit and Pawdekaka join them in the hall. Sumit announces he has built an app that can tell how clean anyone's feet are. Their father laughs it off, asking why an app is needed to tell whether feet are clean, saying the best app of all is already inside one's own head. Sumit insists, takes out his smartphone, and reveals the app is called 'Footprints'. He begins with Rekhamavshi, the very person Snehal had just complained about, and starts asking her a series of questions. Snehal's face falls, remembering it was her own complaint about Rekhamavshi's feet that started all this.

सुमित रेखामावशींना त्या कुठे राहतात, किती अंतरावरून येतात आणि कसे येतात हे विचारतो. त्या पायी किंवा सायकलने येतात आणि घराजवळ झाडेही लावली आहेत असे कळते. सुमित अ‍ॅपमध्ये माहिती भरतो आणि स्क्रीनवर रेखामावशींच्या पावलांचा रंग चंदेरी, म्हणजे सगळ्यात स्वच्छ, असा निकाल येतो.

Sumit asks Rekhamavshi where she lives, how far it is, and how she gets there every day. She lives beyond the hill, about three kilometres away, and used to walk, but her son recently gave her a bicycle so now she cycles in. Sumit also asks how much she travels in a week, how she gets around, and how many trees she has planted. Rekhamavshi says she always walks or occasionally cycles, and has planted two trees outside her hut, one of them a neem sapling. No one can guess why Sumit needs all this information, and Rekhamavshi grows a little flustered. Sumit taps a button on his phone, and a blue square shaped like a doormat, as clear as a cloudless sky, appears on the screen, with two silver-foiled footprints at its centre, and below them the English words appear, 'Silver Footprints, the most clean footprints'. Everyone stares in amazement.

सुमित आता पावडेकाकांची माहिती अ‍ॅपमध्ये भरतो. ते रोज एकटे कारने वीस किलोमीटर प्रवास करतात असे कळते. अ‍ॅपमध्ये त्यांचे पाय काळेकुट्ट दिसतात आणि 'सगळ्यात घाण फूटप्रिन्टस' असे लिहून येते. काका रागावतात, पण सुमित समजावतो की कारने प्रवास केल्याने किती कार्बन डायऑक्साइड हवेत सोडला जातो, हे हे अ‍ॅप दाखवते.

Pawdekaka shows off his smooth, fair feet, insisting they are perfectly clean, but agrees to let the app decide. Sumit feeds in his details: he drives alone from Vishrantwadi, a full twenty kilometres, and since his office is sixteen kilometres from home, he covers thirty-five to forty kilometres by car every day. Snehal points out he hasn't planted any trees either, since he can't even spare time to bring soil for his wife's potted plants. When Sumit hits the button, two pitch-black footprints appear on screen, with the words below reading, 'Sorry, you have the dirtiest footprints, perfect black footprints.' Pawdekaka's face falls and he angrily dismisses it all as some kind of trick, saying he doesn't believe in virtual nonsense. Sumit gently explains that these footprints are not virtual at all but very real, because the app measures how much carbon our everyday actions release into the air, and that a twenty-kilometre car trip alone burns at least a litre of petrol and releases more than double that amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

सगळ्यांना कळते की रोजच्या फरशीपेक्षा आपण वातावरणच जास्त घाण करतो. स्नेहल सायकल वापरण्याचा आणि अभिषेक बसने प्रवास करण्याचा संकल्प करतात. बाबा सांगतात की आपण चालणे, सायकल वापरणे विसरून गेलो आहोत, म्हणून सार्वजनिक वाहतूक वापरणे गरजेचे आहे. रेखामावशी फरशीवरचे आपले ठसे सहज पुसतात, पण हवेतले ठसे इतक्या सहज पुसता येत नाहीत, म्हणून झाडे लावावी लागतील असे सुमित सांगतो.

Sumit's words strike everyone at once, they had been complaining about a dirty floor, but in truth they were polluting the entire atmosphere. Deeply moved, Snehal resolves that from today she will cycle to college, because she wants feet as silvery as Rekhamavshi's. Abhishek too decides that since a bus stop sits right outside his college, he will travel by bus from now on. Their father backs them up, observing that people have forgotten how to walk or cycle, reaching for a bike even to buy vegetables from the corner shop and then inventing a separate morning-walk routine for exercise, which is why public transport has become essential. Meanwhile Rekhamavshi easily wipes away her own footprints from the floor with a damp cloth, and Sumit points this out, saying the footprints we leave on the atmosphere cannot be wiped away so easily, for that we must plant trees, so this greenery can lighten our blackened footprints even a little. Otherwise, Pawdekaka adds, we will keep running forever as people with soiled feet, and even he feels as though a glimmer of hope flickers across that blue square.