A city-based teenager has created an illustrated calendar to spread awareness about marine life and the need to protect it
Parrotfish
Can something as simple as a calendar be used as a tool for education and awareness? A chunk of us who are used to stocking multiple freebie copies by organizations and brands might be apprehensive. But Tamanna Balachandran thinks otherwise. The 16-year-old from Malad has created an A5 desk calendar for 2021 that showcases the magnificent marine life that surrounds us with her hand-painted illustrations along with an interesting fact about each creature.
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Take for instance, the Parrotfish, which plays a key role on the coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean region. Did you know that it blows a bubble of mucus every night only to use it as a sleeping bag? Creating this calendar was a journey of discovery for Balachandran, too. But she has immersed herself in nature since childhood; as a 10-year-old, she became the youngest certified scuba diver in the world.
Pygmy seahorse
Balachandran created the calendar in March, and also started an Instagram page called Hues of the Blues because she always wanted to introduce the marine world to the rest of the world. "I feel that to start caring about that ecosystem, you need to know what is going on in that ecosystem. The reason I am able to feel so strongly about it is because I've been in the ocean. But not everyone has that opportunity so I wanted to show them that world and enable them to build empathy for it through my paintings," she states.
Since Balachandran has spent time scuba diving only in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in Sri Lanka, she shares that it was interesting to find out more about creatures in other oceans for the calendar. "I had to find facts that were fascinating and shocking to every person — whether they have prior knowledge or not — so I could reach a wider audience. I also tried to include species that were going extinct or threatened," she says.
Tamanna Balachandran
Balachandran hopes to keep making more products and is also aiming for a future in marine biology. All proceeds from the sale of the calendar will be donated to Dakshin Foundation, a non-profit whose work is oriented towards environmental sustainability. And isn't it high time we start 2021 on a mindful note anyway?
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