Today, what could have been a better topic than The Ugly
Indians with “U” ?
I feel proud to write
about a bunch of anonymous volunteers on a mission- “No Lectures, No activism,
Just hard work”. The group originating
in Bangalore and named - The Ugly Indians (TUI,) takes up spot fix activities
every week in Bangalore and now the concept is being adopted in other cities of
India in last few months.
Drawing inspiration from “Work
is Worship” and “Talk less, work more”
, the group applies simple and smart solutions to implement the makeover
for eyesore spots like filth on
footpath, stains on walls, open dumps, cigarette litter or open public urinal spots . Sometimes they
involve civic agencies when they need to go deep into the problems as they
believe in working with the existing systems rather doing sit outs on what is
not working. Volunteers are all citizens
like you and me without the cynicism that things won’t work - employed in big,
small companies in the near about places with a mentality to change the face of
the place by doing work silently. The folks in T-shirts, brooms, shovels are
not into any kind of propaganda to join hands, rather expect people with the
serving mentality to be drawn towards the activities.
Their website
page bears testimony to the success stories of the makeovers done and FB page is witnessing a
rapidly increasing likes. Groups from outside India are showing interest into
knowing these spot fix activities having similar mindset of service beyond
self. Additionally, their work is recognized by every citizen in Bangalore
whereby, the Ugly Indian has
been voted as a Bangalore Hero as part of the last Bangalore
Mirror campaign.
Their motto is to show people how the change looks like and
believe that people will surely change along with the change happening around
and get attracted in doing more – time
might be longer, path might be steeper.
It is high time that we stop thinking that problems are
someone else’s and someone else or government will take care of things. While
there are talks of many public private partnership projects around – some
materializing and some not, this is a fine bit example a “Muh Bandh, Kaam Chalu
(stop talking, start working) movement in action and in reality to change of
hygiene condition of our beloved country.
I urge my readers to visit their pages and get involved.
 |
| Volunteers @ work |
