#Ricebucketchallenge: The next viral craze with a ‘desi’ twist

By Hyacinth Mascarenhas

Scroll through your news feed on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and you are more than likely to find videos of people participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge, the massively viral, global challenge raising money and awareness for ALS research, also known as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

India has spun the challenge to come up with its own version to give to people in need in a less wasteful way.

Enter the #ricebucketchallenge.

Launched by 38-year-old journalist Manju Latha Kalanidhi in Hyderabad, India, the challenge asks that participants simply donate a bowl or bucket of rice, cooked or uncooked, to somebody in need, post a photo online and challenge your friends, family members or colleagues to do the same. Described as the “Indian version for Indian needs” on its Facebook page, the challenge has become very popular in India as an alternative to the “ice bucket challenge” and has also gone viral on social media. Created on August 24, the Facebook page gained almost 15,000 likes on its first day.

“Why waste water?” Kalanidhi told CNN. “I felt like doing something more locally tangible. Rice is a staple here. We eat it every day, we can store it for months. Why not donate rice to someone who is hungry?”

Kalanidhi kicked off the campaign by donating almost 50 pounds of rice to her 55-year-old neighbor who has a family of five to feed.

“The idea of dunking oneself in icy cold water, shrieking in horror and then uploading the bizarre video felt preposterous. I wanted to just do something local, meaningful without wasting anything,” Kalanidhi told Quartz. “So rice replaced water here.”

In a country where clean water is scarce and nearly 210 million people, a quarter of the world’s population, go hungry, the new challenge comes as a refreshing, sustainable spin on the ALS challenge that resonates with the Indian public and helps alleviate serious issues in the Indian subcontinent. Kalanidhi said rice was chosen for donation because it is an integral part of the Indian diet and rhymes with “ice.”

Celebrities have also taken on the challenge including well-known Bollywood filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt, Karan Johar, singer Miley Cyrus and her little brother Braison. In association with Sapna Iktara Foundation, the Taj Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad also took on the challenge, donating 500 portions of biryani to the poor as well.

“We have lit a lamp here. You light a lamp there,” said Bhatt.“That is the only way we can end the darkness from the country and the world.”

The campaign has also spread beyond India’s borders with people in Canada, Hong Kong and California participating and donating rice, money and even medicine as well.

“Anything which is good, imaginative, which has the humanity’s concern at its heart will find legs,” said Bhatt.

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