Late environmentalist’s ideas come alive ahead of daughter’s wedding

CHENNAI: A Perambalur woman has printed the wedding invitation of her youngest daughter on cloth bags to immortalise the ideas of her environmentalist husband who died of cancer a year ago.
At least 800 cloth bags with date and venue of the marriage on one side and the image of poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar on the other have been printed. The idea is to create awareness among people about how to preserve the environment by saying 'NO' to plastics.
“My husband, Dayalan, was keen on environmental activities. I want to go ahead with his ideas and that’s why I printed my younger daughter’s wedding invitation on cloth bags. The cotton-bag-invite surprised many when I handed over them to them. The response was good,” said D Shantimalar, who has invited more than 200 people. The marriage will be held in Neyveli on January 18.
D Sukhdev, son of Shantimalar, said they had sent 400 bags to the bridegroom so that he could also join the campaign. “When he heard about it, he showed interest. We have sent 400 bags to him. He has also started distributing them,” he said.
Perambalur-based environmentalist Ramesh Karuppaiya said such initiatives get tremendous response from people. “Ideas like this are welcome. The cotton bag invite will reduce the use of plastic in and around the area. More people should come up with such innovative ideas to protect our nature,” he added.