A few months back, a beautiful endeavor began in Sec A, Pkt B&C. Seeing the neglected condition of some of the parks, a few residents decided that they would do something themselves. But
they did not know what. They chose a park which was near their apartment blocks and decided to begin there.
They started to meet there early morning every day and began picking up trash. They discovered that though the park had some beautiful trees and plants and a children’s playground, it was actually quite dirty. Cold drink bottles and cans, food packets, dog poop, gutka packets, plastics, broken pots, etc. were strewn around. Lots of clay idols and images were dumped under a peepal tree. Maids loved to gather there in the mornings and young people in the evenings and they also littered the place.
So, they brought their own gloves, shovels and plastic bags and decided to clean the park, part by part. One of them laughingly called it “kar sewa”. At one place, there was a huge rubbish dump of old leaves, construction debris and even odd bits of furniture. But this was too huge to tackle by themselves. They appealed to everyone and slowly the littering reduced significantly. At this point they had sufficiently cleaned the park and started to plant a few saplings and cuttings, themselves.
Neighbours slowly noticed their efforts and they came forward to lend their support by giving plants, getting their gardeners to water the plants and clean the nearby beds and walkways. Soon, an opportunity arose to appeal to the civic authorities who agreed to help. They sent their resources who pruned the trees and hedges, trimmed the grass and cleared the park. They took away a few truckloads of trash and rubbish from the huge dump and reduced it significantly.
The park started to look really nice and clean. The best part was yet to come. The ARWS decided to hold a prestigious event for kids- Community Art Workshop in the park, organized by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. It was attended by over 60 children and their parents and was a huge success!!
The volunteers who started this endeavor are very happy with the results. They never expected that their small effort would result in such an outcome. They succeeded in bringing joy not only to themselves but to others as well. They are continuing to make daily efforts and hope that many others will follow their example.
