Five tales, one dream: India on the move

As we celebrate our 63rd Independence Day today, DNA profiles everyday freedom fighters who, hailing from different walks of life, have the common — and inspiring — goal of taking India to its tryst with destiny as a nation whose greatness lies in its people and their actions. Here’s their clarion call for a life of action.

Fire-free Bangalore

The fire at Carlton Towers claimed the life of Uday Vijayan’s 23-year-old son Akhil Uday. This spurred him on to set up Beyond Carlton and since its inception in March, it has been creating awareness about safety and the need to prevent another Carlton Tower mishap in the future.

“I want to reach out to the nine families who lost their loved ones in the accident. I thought the best way to get justice is by setting up Beyond Carlton. The support we have received is encouraging; our Facebook group received support from more than 1,000 members,” says Vijayan. Many organisations and apartments are looking into fire-safety issues and this is a healthy sign, adds Vijayan.

However, the biggest challenge is signing up individuals to the cause. “The belief that ‘It won’t happen to me’ is disheartening. Once this mindset hurdle is crossed, many issues will fall into place,” he adds. The fire department needs a complete re-haul, says Vijayan. “The department must improve its equipment. Also, officials need to be trained to deal with fire accidents and emergency situations. If these two issues are taken care of, they will be truly empowered,” adds Vijayan.

Today, Beyond Carlton is working with corporate organisations to enhance their safety measures. Beyond Carlton will also tie up with schools to spread awareness among children. The objective is to get citizens to believe fire safety is as important to overall security as anything else is.

Beyond Carlton hopes to make Bangalore ‘fire-free’ and through citizens’ participation, it hopes to achieve this goal.

Uday Vijayan, Founder, Beyond Carlton

Bangalore beautiful

Ask Freedom Park’s architect Soumitro Ghosh about beautifying public spaces and he says urban life is meant to be a rich experience. A beautiful urban space is an area where greenery, buildings and the spaces between them merge in a continuum of experiences.

Ghosh, along with his wife Nisha Mathew Ghosh, conceptualised Freedom Park, a theme park based on an award-winning design. The park stands on the premises of the erstwhile Bangalore Central Jail and it was planned as a vibrant location for culture, theatre, the arts, literature and more.

“Beautifying a public space is not just about dealing with empty lots of land that are green and allotted as green space on the master plan,” he says. “Urban space is a seamless entity of soft and hard scapes. Beautifying a space is an aspect of planning that requires governmental patronage and should be done for the financial benefit of stakeholders and for benefit of the public. “

Ghosh set up his studio for architectural design in 1996 and has worked on urban projects, parks, corporate offices buildings, religious, industrial and residential buildings and so much more. Ghosh says India holds immense promise, but lacks discipline and perseverance to turn the cogs of the machine in its favour.  “If we do not like our own environment, then we need to look deep inside with fear and repulsion,” he says, adding: “The time to change is here and now — in our sphere of work, living and all else. It is time we reviewed our vision and image of ourselves and the future image of our city.”

As for making Bangalore beautiful, Ghosh says small measures may go a long way, but now is the time to put the collective dream forward. High life, real life and the underbelly of the city will inevitably continue to coexist and make up the charm of any city. “As people with our lives in the city that we call our own, its time to reinforce our faith and make a commitment to make a difference,” he signs off.

Soumitro Ghosh, architect of Freedom Park

Walk the talk

Bangalore Walks, a refreshing concept by Arun Pai, has been a runaway success. What better way for citizens to get to know Bangalore than on foot?
“There is so much to know about the city, even for those who have been staying here for 40 years. We show people different parts of the city and give them a detailed description of it,” says Pai.

Bangalore Walks showcases the city to the world. With Bangalore representing ‘New India’, the organisation feels the need to fill in the gap that the tourist industry doesn’t cater to.

“Tourism, in the traditional sense, means tourists are shown only palaces and the like. However, with Bangalore not having many must-see places, we have taken on the task of restoring the city.”

The response in the past five years has been phenomenal. In fact, Bangalore Walks is unable to meet the huge demand.

“People are hungry for knowledge and are looking for an intelligent outing. Our combination of history and culture, along with fun, has appealed to all our walkers.”

Another project, Beloved Bangalore, is trying to improve the civic conditions of the city, with the active help of citizens. “We want people to take charge and do something for their city, rather than sit back and complain”, says Pai.
Bangalore Walks customises these rounds depending on what the client wishes to see.

Arun Paio, founder, Bangalore Walks

Green initiative

Be the change you want to see. Meet Dr Meenakshi Bharath, who works with this motto to make our city cleaner and greener.

Through her initiatives of conducting workshops and interactive sessions on solid waste management, Dr Bharath and her team are doing their bit for the city. “Every citizen must be responsible for keeping the city clean. We need to save the city of the huge garbage problem.

All it takes is for each household to make sure that the dry and wet waste is segregated.”

Recycling doesn’t involve much effort as recycled material is a resource. In a simple way, we can give back to Nature its due, says Dr Bharath.

The ‘lack of awareness’ amongst people and their disinterest towards these issues is a matter of concern. “Both the government and citizens are responsible for the conditions in the city. It’s time people think beyond themselves and think of the community. If you want to make a change, take charge,” implores Dr Bharath.

Over time, Dr Bharath and her team are making commendable progress. “Our biggest achievement is we have been able to get people to think about these matters and we are seeing results the way we had envisioned,” adds Dr Bharath.

However, to make further progress, it is important the government facilitates setting up a dry waste collection centre in every ward since this will make recycling easier.

Thus, the credo is ‘wealth out of waste’, provided garbage segregation happens at source.

Dr Meenakshi Bharath, Civic management expert

Civic sense

Listening to 70-year-old civic crusader T Vidyadhar narrate the various small and big victories he has achieved in the past 20 years is invigorating.

As vice-president of HMT Layout RWA for the past nine years, there is hardly any area that Vidyadhar has left untouched when it comes to civic upliftment.
Some feathers in his cap are:

Initiating garbage collection in his neighbourhood even before the BBMP introduced its own collection programme in the 1990s; spearheading a tree-plantation programme; initiating the regeneration of the Hebbal Lake and raising Rs3 crore for the project. Two of his recent achievements are instituting an award for the best BBMP cleaner in his area and paving the way to clean up a children’s playground, which was being used by builders to dump construction material.

“Figuring out problems in our neighbourhood and finding solutions has become a passion,” says the indefatigable Vidyadhar. “What is the point of being a couch potato,” he asks. One of Vidyadhar’s biggest achievements has been creating dialogue between elected representatives and citizens. He’s got in touch with Katta Subramanya Naidu —BJP MLA from Hebbal — and organised interactions between the MLA and people from a number of wards.

Vidyadhar’s tip for others setting out on a similar route is ‘talk to those in power’. “It’s best to start at the basic level. If there is any problem in your area, you should talk to the corporator. If he or she doesn’t respond or seems unhelpful, you can go higher and seek out the MLA, then the MP and then even the chief minister. Why not,” he asks.

T Vidyadhar, vice-president of the Residents’ Welfare Association, HMT Layout, RT Nagar