CHENNAI: For Varshini, a class VIII student at Chettinad Vidyashram, Friday was the day when one of her long-held dreams came true. She had watched hours and hours of record setting attempts on television and had always wanted to be a part of one such attempt. Her dream came true on Friday when, along with 50 of her school mates, she tried to make the largest newspaper bag ever to create an awareness on the need to shun plastics.The idea for attempting the record was sown in 2009, when students of the same school broke a Limca World Record by making a 35-feet-long paper bag. Rajesh, a coordinator for the event, says that when the students sat together again to come up with an idea for persuading people to give up plastics, they decided to take forward their previous attempt and create a bigger bag that could be displayed at the Science Expo, held on Friday. Priya, a class VIII student who was a part of the project, says that when they decided on the attempt to better their Limca Record, the biggest issue was how they were going to arrange for paper required for making the bag. “It was then decided by the members of the eco-club in the school that we would go to all the houses in our respective apartments and ask for paper,” she says. During the course of collecting newspapers, students say that it was also decided to persuade people to celebrate a smoke-less Deepavali this year. Also, apart from the fun of creating a record, students say that they got to make new friends by working together as a team. Abdul Gani of Make Earth Smile Again (MESA), who monitored the record attempt, says that the bag was about 100 feet in length and 50 feet in width. The paper bag creation was jointly organised by Chettinad Vidyasharm and Youth Exnora International as part of their ‘Say NO to plastic bags initiative.
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