Amidst the sporadic whistling and almost emphatic cheering, for an onlooker it would be just another college fest. Definitely not some awareness rally! Samanvay- a social festival hosted by Baldwin Boys College, Hosur, Bangalore in collaboration with Greenpeace, went all out against GM food.

Yeah it was crowded! Students filled the auditorium; in fact, I landed up sitting with the staff. Not surprising though, with over 20 colleges participating what else was expected.

Presentation apart, there were some questions raised, there should have been many more, but curiosity comes naturally, and many of the curious weren’t the ones who mustered the courage to ask questions.

What’s wrong with knowing? More likely, it’s the knowing that’s usually scary, especially when you know that something as uncontrollable as GM food is around waiting to create mass disasters.

Second presentation- this worked better, barring the normal college sleepers, everyone seemed to be listening. Few heads turned, nodded, and pretty soon there was a Mexican wave of collective nods.

We’re still not done!

So there were still many skeptical, that’s ok! It takes time to adjust, like watching aliens on screen is fun, but dealing with them would be a whole other issue. Same with GM food! It’s not easy to accept that the very food we may eat could be unsafe, untested, genetically modified junk.

I remember some conversations about growing tails when I was young; they were up there with the ‘your face gets twisted with the wind’ legends. Well this time, Im sure the tails didn’t seem too funny, especially after the audience watching ‘Poison on the platter’.

We all celebrate festivals; this day at Baldwin’s was a celebration of knowing. Knowing what genetic junk one could be made to eat…blissfully ignorantly!

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