Zona Hiranandani

Sustainability

For most of my life I’ve always had a passion for writing, but it wasn’t till I started blogging on my very first blog. Yes, that’s right. It was Xanga - a blog to post my creative writing pieces online as a ten years old. Then, I tried again. It was on Tumblr and Wordpress. The first was to post my ‘stream of consciousness’, flash fictions and poetry, whereas the other, was more of a serious blog. Only I wasn’t sure what I could write exactly - it needed to be something where I could bring some positivity and support to those reading my blog posts, yet educate individuals at the same time. Since I was nine years old, I’ve always loved nature and took for granted for growing up in an unique urban jungle city. I loved the hiking trails and countryside of Hong Kong, the different coastlines you could find on each different islands, and the fact that you were never far off from nature itself was the true beauty for me. I started off recycling (and trying to get my family to do the same), cutting out red meat, and continued with beach clean ups with some friends from physics class. The more I took part in beach clean ups and trying to reduce my waste through sixth from and university, it saddened me of how much waste would be washed ashore - many of them being plastic waste, plastic microfibres, medical waste, and the notorious most personally hated of mine… polystyrene!

As I progressed more into sustainability, I found out about the zero waste movement which sparked off in the United States and Europe. I was studying in the UK for my postgraduate creative writing degree when zero waste was new in the UK (though unheard of in Hong Kong!), and decided to up my sustainable lifestyle by reducing my plastic (packaging) waste in my life. It was hard, I wasn’t living in London and was living in a smaller city that didn’t have many ‘zero waste’ shops. I realised it would be the same when I eventually moved back to Hong Kong, and so, found myself writing about the different ways of how anyone from any background could reduce their waste. I wanted to show that it was possible for those living in an urban environment, such as Hong Kong, that any individual could lessen their waste and environmental impact by simple lifestyle changes. Even if plastic still has to be part of your life because of affordability and accessibility reasons. I wanted to show the realistic aspects of living low / zero waste.

Together with my frustration with the lack of effort from the Hong Kong Government when it comes to managing waste, educating the public on sustainability, and implementing innovative projects and supporting the eco-community, I decided to start an e-shop in order to provide sustainable, plastic-free, and package-free alternatives to the Hong Kong community. With the shop, I’m hoping to start sustainability related workshops to create a bigger community in local areas by educating individuals the science behind our wasteful impact and what they can do about it as an individual and as a community. Whether it’s at home or at their workplace. I want to educate those about humans rights issues and how anyone could live more ethically in any country they live in. Because in the end, we all live on this planet and we need to take care of it sooner than later. This is a climate emergency for 2019 homosapiens.

Besides from blogging about sustainability, I also write book reviews and game reviews. Apart from blogging, I also post about the realities of living sustainably and low waste on my Instagram.

You can read my published online content here.

Visual Play

Being a visual learner and creative person, I’m often playing around with graphics and illustrations. My style of illustrating tends to be more water coloured and ink based, more similarly to traditional media mediums but digitalised. I got into graphic designing through my love for calligraphy, often playing around with fonts and the ink brush on procreate. I use Procreate, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

See my Graphic Design and Illustration portfolio here.

Photography

My love for travel didn’t set foot till I went interrailing around Western Europe with a friend. I had my first proper DSLR camera with me and finally had the opportunity to take street photography in places that I’ve never been to but had always wanted to for years. I loved taking pictures of the locals living their daily lives, doing things they’re set in routine for, and just LIVING in a place they call home. While living in Bristol and Bath in the UK, I took pictures of the locals and the architecture (I have a strange obsession with gothic architecture) in the cities. I’m now back in my home city and you can find me roaming around the old neighbourhoods of Hong Kong taking pictures of the livelihood of locals working in the forgotten traditional shops among the few walk-up buildings that remains. With my photography, I’ve learned to appreciate the simplicity and beauty of life. You can see my photography (including content creation flatlays) on my Instagram and here.

Mental Health and YouTube

I enjoy writing about my low waste and mental health journey, and more often than not, I tell my readers that I’m not perfect. I’m just widdle ol’ 5’5” me. No one is perfect. We all have flaws and make mistakes - I’ve certainly have! (I’m still learning to love myself more, just be the best version of myself and live in the present…) But we can all learn from them and become stronger by building up ourselves step by step. I wanted to share about living with anxiety and depression and how it affects daily life. Just like with my sustainability journey, I wanted to document the wins and fails of living with mental health. The important thing is to build a supporting community where people can share about their experiences too. In the end. no one is alone and has to live alone. In the words of Luke Cage (Marvel), “I’ve got you.”

Creative Writing

Besides blogging, illustrating and photography, I also write stories and the occasional poetry (though an amateur at it!). I’ve always been a prose writer, and have always called myself a writer for as long as I can remember, and am currently drafting my psychological thriller dystopian manuscript set in the year of 2060.

If you are a literary agent or publisher, and are interested in my work please e-mail me at: sona.hiranandani@gmail.com