Skit Based on Environment and How it Affects Peace

This is the play which we enacted on stage on August 6th, World Peace Day:

Vaishu and Mahi are spending their hols at their grandmother’s. One day, the girls accompany their grandma to a nearby market. On the way, they pass a group of women jostling each other near a water pump. Two women were fighting for the handle of the pump…

Woman 1: What do you think you’re doing? I was here first!

Woman 2: No, you weren’t! Stop pushing me!

Woman 1: You devil, I have been waiting here for over an hour…

Woman 2: Get lost, you banshee!!

She tries to grab the handle and keeps the pot under the nozzle of the pump, but the first woman harshly pushes her away. She falls down and then gets up enraged. They start fighting very violently.

Vaishu: Oh no, we should stop them!

Grandma: No my dear child. Those two women are too harsh and stubborn. If we try to intervene, the fight will only get worse. Let them resolve the issue themselves.

Sometime later…

Mahi: Look Grandma! Isn’t that Kavitha aunty? Why does she look so upset?

Grandma: Mrs. Dawson has been diagnosed with some respiratory problems. She’s a very close friend of Kavitha’s. Naturally, she’s very worried.

Vaishu: Mrs. Dawson? The lady who used to give us free chocolates whenever we visited her shop?

Grandma: Yes, poor girl… She will recover soon, of course! But such illnesses are a nuisance for someone of her age.

Just then, another friend of Grandma’s comes and stops to chat with her old friend.

Friend: Hey! Hi kids!

V+M: Hi Mrs. Kumar!

Mrs. Kumar: Guess what Mala… The farm girl has been caught stealing from one of the shops here!

Grandma: The farm girl? Why, good heavens! She was such a sweet and innocent looking girl the last time I saw her…

Mrs. Kumar: Quite a shock isn’t it? I would never have believed it if it were not for the fact that one of the witnesses is a close friend of mine… [sighs] I guess it’s all fate.

Mrs. Kumar notices a dull look on the girls’ faces.

Mrs. Kumar: Hey, what’s wrong with you two?

Vaishu and Mahi look at each other.

Vaishu: It’s nothing Mrs. Kumar.

Mrs. Kumar: Oh, okay… See you later then, Mala. Bye girls!

Mrs. Kumar walks away and the three of them keep walking till they reach the park. Grandma, being tired, sits on the bench. She turns to the kids.

Grandma: So what’s troubling you girls? Why the long faces?

Vaishu: Oh, grandma… there’s no peace, no happiness here!

Mahi: All we hear about are fights, diseases and thefts…

Vaishu: How do you even live here?

Grandma smiles.

Grandma: There used to be a time when all of this town would rejoice like everyday’s special, when people used to live in harmony and peace. But because of the carelessness and ignorance of the people, this place has lost most of its beauty.

Vaishu: But grandma, how? I don’t understand…

Mahi: Neither do I…

Grandma: Girls, there used to be a time when this place was covered with trees, gardens and other forms of greenery. People respected nature. They nourished it.

Vaishu: But now?

Grandma: But now, what with the cutting of trees and over-use of resources, people have destroyed the peace that used to dwell here.

Mahi: What has that got to do with anything we saw? The women near the water pump…

Grandma: Were fighting because they feared they might not get adequate water. With trees missing, rains became less frequent and the result was water shortage. And the reason why so many people suffer from respiratory problems now is…

Vaishu: Pollution?

Grandma: Exactly. And why do you think that poor farm girl chose to steal? Her family plunged into poverty when the rains failed their fields.

Mahi: Poverty is the mother of all crimes…

Vaishu: But Grandma, does that mean there’s no hope for this place?

Grandma: I never said that! If we plant trees and start saving resources…

Mahi: Oh, c’mon Grandma! There are thousands of people living here and they are all wasting the resources a lot. Very few consider planting trees. What difference is it going to make if we save a cup of water? Whatever we do, there are buckets and buckets going down the drain…

Grandma [with a smile]: Perhaps I should tell you a small story…

Grandma narrates the following story:
One day, a little girl was walking along the beach. There was also a young lady walking ahead of her. Every now and then, the lady would bend down, pick up a starfish and throw it into the sea.


Little Girl: Why are you doing that?

Lady: Because the starfish will die if it remains out of water for long, little girl.

Little Girl: But there’ll be millions and billions of those creatures all along this coastline. What difference is it going to make if you save one or two?

The young lady smiled. She bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it into the oceans and said…

Lady: Made a difference to that one!

Grandma finished her story with a meaningful smile.

Mahi: That was beautiful grandma!

Vaishu: Yeah!


Grandma: So you see girls, it’s not the quantity that matters… It’s quality. It can be just a drop of water or gallons of it… But in the end, it always makes a difference to the world at large.