It’s Your City, Keep it Clean

Faridibad residents put up an excellent example of fulfilling their duties towards their city when an NGO, “I Love My City,” Market Welfare Association, and RWA jointly took the initiative to clean one of the most popular but messy markets of Sector 15.

The venture was held on Sunday by almost 50 people where they themselves swept the market clean and shouted slogans like “Mera market kaisa ho, Mere ghar ke jaisa ho.” They talked to shopkeepers and vendors about how they were responsible for the upkeep of the market. They received a positive response from the locals when shopkeepers voluntarily started to clean the garbage near their shops  and promised to do the same.

PP Singh, the founder of the NGO, said “I ardently love Faridibad and it is every resident’s responsibility to take care of this city.”

Manohar Puniani, MWA president, said “It is actually our responsibility to keep the market neat and clean and today we have taken the first step.”

The NGO has been associated with many more welfare projects in the past where they undertook the construction of a road in Sector 23 and repaired potholes in Sector 28.

[Find out more by looking up I Love My City on Facebook.]

Rao teamed with six other colleagues in the tech industry to work with him in pooling their time and money to restore dilapidated ancient monuments. His project, first titled “Unseen Karnataka”, began when he wrote about these monuments and the benefits it would bring society for them to be restored. But when he talked with his friends, they all decided that more than writing was called for. Rao relates that they decided that taking direct action was a once in a lifetime opportunity to contribute to their homeland.

They worked with the Archaeological Survey of Indian, identifying different sites and spending their weekends investigating them. They visited twenty-five locations and began work at three of them. In doing so, they both educated local communities and tourists online about the different sites. In the months that followed, they worked with local citizens and college students to unearth a number of ancient temples.

The costs of excavation are of course very high. Go to the Unseen Karnataka website to get involved.

Tessa Mills created a fundraising event to raise £1,000 for new classrooms at a Himalayan school. The event, which was her project in the self expression and leadership programme, actually raised £1,500 and the attention of the London Informer.

Chelsea Party for Indian Kids

by Ellie Dyer

A Chelsea resident has been inspired to throw a party to help build a new classroom at an Indian school, nestled in the foothills of the world’s largest mountains.

Tessa Mills, 56, is hosting an event at World’s End Studios, in Lots Road, tomorrow night to help children in the famous tea-growing district of Darjeeling.

She hopes to raise £1,000 for the 55 pupil English-speaking school, so it can extend its educational reach and improve the lives of youngsters, after a visit to the institute.

“It was truly amazing place, on the foothills of the Himalayas. But there was a huge contrast between the beauty and the simplicity of the classrooms”, said Tessa.

“Raising the money will means the school can continue.”

Tickets for the party cost £15 and it starts at 6pm. The ticket includes an Indian beer and entertainment.

It will be held at the World’s End Studio, 134 Lots Road, Chelsea.

Bala Venkat of the metropolis of Bangalore, India, has come up with a novel idea to reduce the noise pollution of the city. His project in the Landmark Education SELP programme is to create a campaign against this by raising awareness, educating drivers about indiscriminate honking, and working with police and other officials. He has organized many volunteers and a co-director for his programme. The Times of India covered the Landmark Education project in their November 11 edition.

By BK Ganesh

BANGALORE: How often have you been stuck in a traffic jam and seen motorists making things worse by incessant honking? This, despite the knowledge that the jam is going to take long to ease, and the honking helps in no way whatsoever. The horns blare even in hospital or school zones.

In a battle against this unnecessary noise, two groups of youths will soon kick off a no-horn campaign that aims at creating awareness about noise pollution.

Techie Bala Venkat and his team have got together aound 500 volunteers for their campaign – called No Honk Please – that will be launched on November 25 by tagging stickers on vehicles and holding a road show. It will be flagged off from the Nokia office, where Bala works. He will first educate his colleagues about indiscriminate honking and its effects.

The increasing number of vehicles has made Bangalore one of the noisiest cities in the world. Various studies show that the decibel level of traffic is increasing by the day, and has crossed the maximum permissible limit (it’s 80 decibels on any road); sometimes it’s even louder than a jet taking off.

Employees of Astra Zeneca are also involved in a campaign against noise pollution. They conduct seminars and workshops and organized a road show on M G Road recently. A similar show will be held on November 15.

“Schoolchildren, BMTC and autorickshaw drivers will be educated on the use of horns. ENT experts will speak about the side effects of noise pollution. RTO and police officials will impart information on various rules to be followed,” said Naina Hegde, co-coordinator of the programme. Auto drivers will also be encouraged to use silencers. The team has 15 volunteers.

Besides warnings by the World Health Organization, the Supreme Court has also passed an order directing all state governments to initiate action against noise pollution. The Union ministry of environment had asked the states to forward an action taken report, compiling details on the measures initiated to curb the menace. “But the government had done nothing in this direction. Youths coming out voluntarily to create awareness is laudable,” says ENT specialist Sree Kumar.

On August 16, he held a health camp for seniors at the Chisthu Seva Samaja ashram/old age home. There were more children in the Ashram, and they got health checkups too–More than 40 seniors and 80 children took part. Not only did the participants receive free checkups and medicine, but they also were served free fruits and dinner.

For Chetan KS, the highlight of the event was when all the seniors blessed and prayed for him, his friends and his family prior to their dinner together. The project was such a success that it received the attention of two local newspapers on August 18 – The Sanjevani and The Thina Sudar.

Here is a recent story from a news paper in Banglor

Bangalore, India

Training in Defensive driving as a Landmark Self Expression and Leadership Program. As part of the Landmark Education’s Self Expression and Leadership Programme, B Ramakrishnan has taken up a community project of imparting training in defensive driving for professional drivers, especially companies that hire drivers for their employees. Call centers and software companies are among the target group as ‘they form a significant part of the vehicular movement on the road’, says Ramakrishnan.

As part of the initiative, the first session was conducted for drivers hired by GE India Technology Center (JFWTC) where around 76 drivers from SRS Travels and Ambassador Travels underwent the four-hour programme.

The training covered the basics of defensive driving — the need, impact on community, awareness of safety on the road and responsibility of road users. They also covered some of the recent developments or steps taken by the Bangalore Traffic Police in improving driving conditions on road.

The programme, conducted by Geetha, Inspector (Traffic), Traffic Training Institute, Bangalore Police and her colleagues, included presentations, videos as well as discussions on accidents in the country along with footage that included interviews of family members of victims. The feedback, according to Ramakrishnan, was quite positive and people seemed to realise the impact negligent driving can cause on people as well as how important it is to adhere to rules.

Similar workshops will be conducted for other organisations in the near future. For further information contact Ramakrishnan at: ramakrishnan.b@ge.com