3 Years of 51A & LetsRISE on Vetal Hill!
(51 A व Let’sRISE ची वेताळ…..) To read in Marathi Click here.
There were 2 reasons to start this initiative. Firstly, to start the new year by doing something productive & secondly, anger. Anger on ourselves. We were fed up hearing the showers of blame on the government and administration. A point came where we felt that we have to do something. It’s time to act. So, along with some likeminded people we conducted our first activity at Vetal Hill on 1st January 2017.
The first activity provoked us to think. Was a single cleanliness drive enough and sustainable? What was our role as a citizen? Were we fulfilling our responsibility which we have towards society? We found answers to all these questions in negative. Then we decided that we should contribute one Sunday per month for this cause.
We believe that every small effort and right step towards positivity matters. We save money from the start of our career and gradually reap the benefits. Do we question our small savings?
We had started the work with our friends. But it was necessary that more people be involved for the cause. Positive use of Social Media helped us to connect with many people who have become and inseparable part of the activity today. First we started with Cleanliness drives then we planted trees and now carry out nurturing too. You will get all the information about our activities in the given link below.
On 1st Jan 2018 we planned to celebrate our 1st anniversary but due to some circumstances we cancelled it. But this year we planned to celebrate our 3rd anniversary on 26th January. We invited the previous volunteers and appealed to the people to volunteer. Chief Guest of the anniversary was our Guru who guided us in the process of tree plantation & nurturing, Prof S. D. Mahajan whom we fondly call Bapu
Around 45-50 enthusiastic people volunteered. We made two groups. ‘Group A’ went for tree nurturing ‘Group B’ for cleanliness drive. We cleaned the area around the Vetal Baba Mandir ( Temple).
Some 11th standard youngsters of BMCC and Fergusson College were very active. Sustaining the activity is as important as starting it. Active youth participation emphasised that the cause of trees remains alive in generations to come. It gave satisfaction and confirmed that India’s future is bright. We need to preserve these gems who are the future of the nation. If these Youngsters are aware of problems in our society and country & and are working on the solutions, then India will definitely have a great future.
Another group of Civil Services aspirants had been working with us from 2017. They work with fun and energy. We have kept the name of this group as ‘Matadarsangh’. We were able to collect around 100Kg of trash.
Group A worked on tree nurturing, composting and watering the trees. We cleared the dry grass to protect the trees from bush fires and made fire exits around the trees.
It was a coincidence that on the day of the activity itself we found some part of the tree plantation site had already burnt due to bush fire. We saw that none of our trees got burned in fire due to fire exits made previously. Hence we were able to discuss the importance of Tree Nurturing demonstrating the practical results.
Two female volunteers participated with their kindergarten kids to teach them the importance of trees.
After the cleanliness & tree nurturing both the Groups went to our old plantation site where Bapu interacted with volunteers. Bapu told the importance of native plants in ecology. He revealed the role the native plants play in ecology by various examples & asking questions. Then he conducted Vruksha Parichay (Tree walk) where he gave information about 4-5 native plants along with examples from Sanskrit Subhashitas
After this all went for refreshments, where Bapu told the story of Jaabaal (From Chandogya Upanishad) who discovers through journey of his life that Bramhadnyan is none other than Environmental Science. Arrangements for refreshments were done by Sourav Sir and KhaoLite (Eat Lite, Eat Rite!). If you are pro-healthy food , you can check out amazingly tasty and healthy food served by them here.
Throughout the activity vounteers sang the National anthem more importantly through their work! From the beginning we contained a team of dedicated volunteers and we salute them for their efforts. The activity flourished due to the efforts of volunteers like Kajal Mandge who took responsibility of designing and posting an activity information board at plantation site, Amit Bodake whose wedding was planned within a week from the day of the activity, Sanchit a professional editor who covered the video graphed the activity, Anil, Sameer, Akshay, Amita who coordinated in activity.
Sourav Sir, the backbone of Let’sRISE and 51A made it a point to remain present for some time on 26th even when his wife was admitted in hospital for delivery of a baby. Most importantly, all participant volunteers without whom it was not possible to do work in a large scale. The community is the biggest strength of this initiative in its effectiveness, impact & success.
What does this activity give us? The cleanliness activity gives you a sense of responsibility, consciousness of waste segregation at source. I guarantee that people who pick the trash from the Hill will not throw garbage anywhere and will use dustbins only. Because they would become aware of what one feels by seeing, collecting trash from public places like forest, hills, gardens, roads etc.
Secondly, tree nurturing connects you with nature & give life lessons. In 2017, due to bush fires all our plants burned. We kept nurtutring them never losing hope. One by one all the plants blossomed again. We were part of this journey. We can relate this journey to our life too.
What do we do on our bad days? How do we face them? We consider small problems in our life as big challenges. But these small plants taught us that any kind of situation can come in your life. But you should have hope & belief in yourself that you can overcome. You defeat the worst situation. But for that you need to have lot of patience too.
If you want to experience what I am talking, I request you to participate in the activity & take the real experience of it!
