Once a small space, where garbage was dumped heedlessly, is now transformed into a beautiful garden. Thanks to a Doctor who began construction of this place to make it more cleaner and beautiful.
Once a dumping yard, now a green paradise
Mountains of unsightly litter surrounded by a swarm of disease like flies and mosquitoes. An area which would smell indecently, all day long. In a matter of years, a dumping yard is fully transformed into a beautiful park where senior citizens can come and have a wonderful time.
This beautiful transmutation is the result of the hard work put in by Dr. Hemant Kumar Agarwal, a resident from Domlur who began this transformation work 8 years ago. Talking to The better India, the doctor said, “I was annoyed but quite helpless. The other residents were bothered too, but excluding a few, continued to put up with it. Some even irresponsibly dumped their household waste there. I tried to argue with them and requested the municipal authorities to negotiate, but it didn’t help.”
People’s reckless action towards its neighborhood
Most of the dumping used to happen at midnight between 11 to 2 pm from the residents. Dr. Agarwal used to disrupt their actions and tried to turn them away. A few days later even buses started parking there and turned it into a temporary bus station. The drivers and staff would bathe and even urinate in public view. In the little hours of midnight, drunkard and miscreants would linger the area and create a nuisance.
“You would not imagine how pathetic the situation was before. The road beside my house was an extra service road. Due to less traffic, it did not take long for people to throw garbage there and turn it into an informal dumping ground. After a while, even the BBMP waste collectors and ragpickers would treat the street as a gathering point. Patients coming to Dr. Agarwal’s clinic were also affected,” he told.
It was time for him to think out of the box. He wanted to transform the place into a breathable space. Providing a helping hand, ‘The Ugly Indian’, a well-known community in Bengaluru joined him in his work to clean the site. This unknown group of Bengalureans wishes to keep their identity a secret, and rather, focuses on rebuilding the city’s attractiveness.
Time for a change
They hired JCBs and started the job in the dumping area. Almost ten truckloads of garbage were gathered from huge quantities. After all the hard work finally the real concrete road underneath was evident.
After the place was somewhat looking better than the previous mess, the volunteers of the team began painting rangolis and designs in the place. Dr. Agarwal had bought some seeds and had scattered them all into the place which blossomed greenery by the end of the monsoon.
The place has now been floored with brick tiles and new street lights have been placed to make it a peaceful walking path. Dr. Agarwal decided to name the place as “Ajja-Ajji Park” (Grandpa-Grandma Park) and dedicate it to the senior citizens of the area.
“It is open for all. Parents with their kids, pet parents with their dogs and especially the elderly of the area frequent the park every day. It is nice to see what a beautiful impact a small effort can make,” he says.
