Beautiful minds add sheen to poster-scarred walls

Recently, a few volunteers gathered at Purusawalkam to clear the posters stuck  on the pillars of the flyover with the help of the Chennai Corporation staff. In a few days from now, the space will wear a new look, as they will cover the patches with art work. This initiative by UFO Spotfix at Purusawalkam, a volunteer group, is inspired by The Ugly Indian. 

Several such volunteer groups, inspired by the Bengaluru-based citizens initiative, have taken it upon themselves to make their neighbourhood better. Volunteers of the group, who work anonymously, have already worked extensively in Kilpauk, Saidapet and Tambaram. The team working in Purusawalkam calls its work as Project UFO’. “We recently cleaned the areas around Anna Nagar and Ampa Skywalk. We were helped by a volunteer from The Ugly Indian team. There are no posters pasted there for the past three weeks. Our next stop is Purusawalkam Flyover,” says Meenakshi Ramesh, a volunteer. 

“On Saturday, we plan to meet under the Purasawalkam flyover. We bring our own tools and materials required,” she adds. Elsewhere, residents of the locality get involved in the clean-up near their house. “We wanted to create a spark that would inspire people to come out and do their bit in keeping the city clean,” says the founder of Chennai Spotlight, who wants to remain anonymous. “It is a citizens initiative. 

Anyone who wants to clean a specific area in their neighbourhood can approach us and we help them,” he adds. Srini Swaminathan, a volunteer and co-ordinator has taken it upon himself to identify manholes on roads by painting the area around the cover in bright yellow. Armed with reflectors, he affixes them wherever required on streets.  “ We should not always depend on the government for everything, but be the difference we want to be,” says R. Ravi, another volunteer.