Our feet, trapped in the clutches of pollution while employing equipment for material comforts, depict the impending, horrible atmospheric crisis. The author in this lesson advises the readers to adapt healthier ways of living to save our mother earth from increasing global warming, such as using public vehicles for commuting, growing more trees, and so on. While elaborating on the fun aspect of technology, this science fiction makes one ponder the pitfalls of modernization at the same time.

Abhishek opened the door, and the maidservant Rekha-mavshi (aunty) entered. She rushed into the kitchen to finish her daily chores. Abhishek had gotten up late today since he and his cousin Sumit, who was visiting him, had stayed back till late at night to work on some projects on his laptop.

Suddenly he heard Snehal, his sister, raising her voice on Rekha Mavshi for dirtying the floor, which she was wiping with her own soiled feet! Abhishek entered the hall to find Rekha Mavshi standing in embarrassment and a trail of soiled footprints behind her. Snehal, who was a cleanliness freak, was obviously upset.

Rekha Mavshi tried to reason out that she didn’t work in air-conditioned rooms but in soil and dung, and the approach road to her locality was also dug up. So naturally, all that dust dirtied her feet every day, which she could not even wash off often due to the scarcity of water.

Hearing that, Snehal felt bad for being rude to Rekha Mavshi and apologized to her. She remembered seeing her worn-out footwear torn. Meanwhile, Pawde’s uncle also arrived to meet Abhishek and Snehal’s father and go to some public functions together. Rekha Mavshi glanced at Pawde’s feet, which looked pretty and rosy—spotless and with no cracks! ‘Soft like butter,’ she thought to herself, and she looked at her own feet, which had developed cracks and had darkened due to the accumulation of dust.

Sumit, who had been observing everything so far, said, ‘Uncle, I have created an application (app) programme, that can tell us how muddy our feet are.’ The father shrugged off this idea, saying that we do not need an app for telling such obvious things when our most intelligent human brain can do a better job! He expressed his grudge about how the crazy young generation gives undue importance to technology.

Sumit opened the application named ‘Footprints’ on his smartphone and said, “Let us begin with Rekha Mavshi, about whose feet Snehal had expressed her displeasure.”

He then asked her a series of questions like where she lived, how far her house was from her place of work, how she commuted daily, and so on.

Rekha Mavshi replied that she used to walk all this time, but now she rode on her bicycle, which her son bought for her recently. Sumit went on to record all the information in his app and then asked her how many trees she had planted so far. Rekha Mavshi had planted two trees in front of her small hut. One of which was a neem tree.

Everyone, including Rekha Mavshi, was puzzled by this question-answer session. At the end, Sumit pressed some buttons on his mobile, and at once a blue square appeared on the screen, displaying two silvery footprints with a tagline that said, ‘Silver footprints! The most clean footprints!’

Everyone was wonder-struck! Sumit exclaimed, “See! How silvery Rekha Mavshi’s feet are, like the crystal clear water of a spring!”

“Fuff!” Pawde uncle reacted in a contemptuous tone, glancing at Rekha Mavshi’s feet. Sumit suggested checking his feet on the app. Uncle reluctantly agreed, as he was confident about getting positive results from his undoubtedly soft and clean feet.

Sumit asked him the same set of questions as Rekha Mavshi. Pawde’s uncle told him that he commuted by car alone every day as his office was 16 kilometres away from home. When Sumit asked if he had grown any plants, Snehal answered that he always failed to bring soil for Pawde Aunty whenever she asked for it, let alone grow plants himself.

As Sumit filled in the information in the app, a blue square flashed, followed by Pawde’s uncle’s footprints: ‘Two blackest feet!’ It said with a footnote, ‘Sorry, you have the dirtiest footprints!’

Pawde uncle felt humiliated. He blurted out, “What is this drama? Don’t tell me such virtual tales!”

Sumit looked at his displeased face and said in a consoling tone, “Uncle, these prints are not virtual but actual. This app counts the carbon dioxide that we release into the atmosphere daily. In short, it sketches our carbon footprints that we create through our own lifestyle. Every time you come here by car, you release a double amount of carbon into the atmosphere.”

Pawde uncle was still not convinced, so Sumit further explained, “This is a scientific fact. When one litre of gasoline is consumed by one vehicle, 2.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide gas are released into the atmosphere.

The colour of your footprints depends on that proportion. In Rekha Mavshi’s lifestyle, the question of carbon discharge does not arise at all! Naturally, her feet are more clean and silvery than those of us.”

“We worry about the flooring becoming dirty but fail to realize how much we are polluting our environment. We are constantly contributing to global warming with our carbon footprint, due to which Mother Earth is burning at a high temperature. We must wash out this carbon stuck to our feet first.” Snehal said in a choked voice.

Abhishek declared, “I shall go to college on my bicycle. I want my footprints to be silvery, just like Rekha Mavshi’s.”

Everyone was overwhelmed by Sumit’s app. They realized that we prefer driving motorbikes over walking or cycling to do our errands and later invest extra time in morning walks. Sumit cautioned everyone that our black footprints are not easily erasable. They will fade away only if we add more green colour to our environment by way of planting more trees.

Rekha Mavshi, who was listening to all the conversation, silently wiped off the stains on the floor.

And for Pawde uncle, he summed up in accordance, “Yes, if we do not act upon it right now, we will remain as humans with dirty feet forever,” and he visualized blooming stars on that blue square piece!