The cleanup yesterday (27/ 3/ 16)

[Gayathri Nayar]

    A couple of days ago, I had the idea to clean the littered quadrangle and its surroundings in the shopping complex after reading complaints about it in the residents' mails. I regret that I forgot to inform our group of the plan in advance. Prof. Anantha Subramanian and I worked about an hour and half on Sunday morning to finish the work. We were helped greatly by a young shop assistant from Andavar's. A little broom from Prof. Subramanian's home also chipped in. I realized for the first time in an year of such labour that a broom could much ease the work. Prof. Subramanian also helped me appreciate better that the project could not be deemed complete until we had taken steps to ensure that the littering would not continue at that location. To this end, he kindly proposed to put up a sign board and also a self-designed monkey-safe bin at the spot. I had a chance to see several of the bins installed at the Ocean Engg. Dep't and was quite impressed by the simple beauty of their mechanism, which I could appreciate the better for having given a little thought of my own to figure a suitable design. For the present, I intend to post a printed paper sign at the spot this week until a better one could be prepared,

    I don't know whether our future cleanups will gather the enthusiasm that we saw last year. I had an idea that our work in future could focus on picking up mainly broken glass, pizza savers and construction rings, plastic food wrappers, light bulbs and fluorescent tubes, mirrors, glass shards, medicine bottles and other litter or debris that could pose a threat to wildlife. I thought that being more selective, a much wider area could be covered and our work could be more important- even of life-saving significance- to many living beings here. If you value this suggestion, this is how I would like to direct my own abhiyaan in weeks to come. I would, as always, be very grateful to know your viewpoint.

With warm regards,

Gayathri