City Kemp News
‘Friends of L street’ has been an active group of citizens in one part of Koramangala 3rd block, comprising of residents from Embassy Tranquil, Prestige Oakwood, Raheja Residency, and J block. The group is a little over six years old and has strived to keep its immediate surrounds clean, which includes engaging and enrolling all residents to segregate and dispose off trash responsibly, maintaining clean streets, not allowing garbage to pile up in the vicinity and also painting, doing art work, growing plants and overall keeping the surrounds pretty. The group itself came together after being inspired by a group of faceless warriors, ‘The Ugly Indian’ (do check out their work on Facebook and YouTube.) The start was by doing a ‘spotfix’ – learning what it takes to keep a street clean, and then doing it.
The scope till recently had not included the Raheja Residency frontage and the stretch from RR main gate to Wipro signal. The spotfix on March 25th was intended to do up this stretch and bring it up to speed with the other streets the group has been maintaining.
About twenty five people gathered at the Raheja main gate in the morning and over the next 4-5 hours, about forty of them had swept, painted, made plant beds, planted new plants, tidied and beautified the stretch. This spotfix was supported by Raheja Residency. One of the Ugly Indian faceless warriors was with the group too, guiding and enabling the spotfix.
Can you imagine what an activity of this sort does to a group that gets together? It gives the members a sense of purpose, builds camaraderie, infuses energy, and creates a feeling of connectedness – all great positive qualities for community living.
Prior to the Sunday grouping, the BBMP had been contacted to collect all the garbage that was lying around. The stretch was also swept and cleaned up by pourakarmikas. Members of the group have a cordial relationship with the BBMP team that is responsible for the locality. They know all of the pourakarmikas, and the garbage collectors by their names.
Some of the group members have also downloaded BBMP’s ‘Fix My Street’ app and use it to log in issues regarding potholes, garbage, and street lights. To their delight, BBMP has been responsive and has attended to the complaints logged in via the app!
The beautifying isn’t a one time effort. Those who volunteer also keep vigil of the usual spots that attract garbage dumping – without involvement and a sense of ownership, our environs are at a great risk of becoming uncared for, dirty and unhygienic. Their idea is also to keep pushing the bounds of their neighborhood and to keep doing a little bit more – to care for the trees that give us oxygen and shade, and to care for the pedestrians by making sure the pavements are user-friendly. After all, it only takes one trip and a fall for it to be fatal!
Here’s to more spotfixes in our streets, neighborhoods, localities. The more we care, the more we have a chance of realising a cleaner and healthier Bengaluru.
