“Stop off at our house and pick up the fishing net,” D’Cunha yelled, his voice implying he was in a hurry. His son cycled towards the house and picked up the net. “Dad wants to get to our boat quickly, mom,” he babbled. “Have something before joining your father for deep-sea fishing,” the woman urged. “Oh, no thanks, I’m in a hurry.”

Nature slowly unfolded her treasure at the first ray of sunrise. It was a sunny morning but suddenly it started to rain. “Where is my raincoat dad?”  “You are sitting on it!” Oh no! The boy lowered his brows. “Hey, pull in the net,” D’Cunha shouted. “Sure,” the boy replied.” “Any fish inside?” D’Cunha raised his eyebrows. “No dad, it’s full of plastic waste!” His breathing quickened and his palms got sweaty. “Ugh, take out the trash, please.” grumbled D’Cunha.  They found large amounts of plastic deeper in the sea. It was disturbing.

The boat sailed through the blue waters as the morning sun made ripples of gold everywhere. They returned to their home from the sea.

Though D’Cunha fished out tonnes of plastic from the sea for one month, he soon realised that the scale of plastic waste was much more than a single person could handle.

The fisherman decided to approach the village council for help. “The people are making fun of me to the extent of even labelling me mad,” he said to the head of the village.

D’Cunha decided to launch an anti-plastic mission in the ward along with the council officials. They went around the town, raising awareness on plastic and its detrimental effects on the environment. “If anyone is reported or caught burning plastic waste, he would be heavily penalised,” warned the village officials.

Many people from abroad joined them in their crusade. In total, D’Cunha and his team managed to collect tonnes of plastic waste as well as loads of liquor bottles from the shoreline as well as the sea.

 “You are an inspiration to us all, D’Cunha,” admired the villagers.