INDEPENDENCE DAY TRASH DASH

Date: 15th August 2007

Attending the flag hoisting ceremony in the building had been a routine every 15th August. This time around I decided to join some people from a group called NOET (Natura Outdoor Education Trust) for a session of rappelling followed by a clean up drive. I registered myself over the phone. Avishkar Tendle, the organizer of the event told me to gather at 7:00 a.m. at Sanjay Gandhi National Park Gate.

On Tuesday night I stayed at my cousin’s place in Kandivli. The next morning I caught a rickshaw by 6:40 a.m. I reached the gate by 7 a.m. I called up Avishkar to inform him that I had reached the meeting place. A female voice, which was Maria's as I later came to know, answered the phone and told me that they all will be reaching the place in 10-15 minutes. I went inside the main gate. There was a person standing inside with all necessary gear needed for the session. I asked him if he had also come for the NOET clean up drive to which he replied in the affirmative. He later introduced himself as Deven Bhatt. He informed me that he was into diamond business.

Further he stated that he had a previous rappelling experience at Manali. He lost his left leg due to a torn ligament. His travels had taken him to Kerala too. But trekking was not possible now. Hence he was forced to go to places by vehicles. As we were conversing, a stout bearded man in his late 30's, whom I later came to know as Mihir, called up people who had gathered for the I Day Trash Dash. Some 10-15 people gathered around him. After briefing us about the programme, he led us to the ticket counter. We made our way towards Gandhi Smarak. From the ticket counter to this point the path was so full of flora and fauna that I wished I had been to this place more often. While walking I got into conversation with two senior persons in the event, one Mr. Alok Nath was an accountant with Free Press Journal and Mr. Philip, who was into individual research. It was around 9 a.m. when we all reached the Gandhi Smarak. Here Avishkar introduced himself and briefed us about NOET.

NOET has been doing this event since last year. Then we gathered around for a round of introduction. The group consisted of enthusiast right from the age of sixteen to the fifty five year old senior. Most of the youngsters belonged to a dance troupe. Amongst us there was Sanjay, a cancer patient whose very presence lifted our spirits. After the introduction, we gathered around for a game called Aa Saa Ko. The game is like this: The first person would keep his/her hand so as to look like a salute either using the right hand or the left one and say ‘Aa’. The person next to him/her to whose direction his/her hand is facing is supposed to keep his/her hand next to his/her stomach with the palm facing upwards and pointing towards right or left direction and say ‘So’. The person next to him/her to whose direction the palm was pointing then clasps both his/her hand and points towards anyone in the circle and says ‘Ko’. The person receiving the ‘Ko’ then continues with ‘Aa’. Two winners emerged
. Soon Avishkar called us for the rappelling session. Avishkar briefed us about the accessories involved which were a harness loop, chest loop, a carbiner with strength of 27KN and an 8 connector with strength of 30KN through which a cornamental fibre rope will pass through. Gaurang, another member of NOET was showing us what all could happen if things go wrong like if we didn’t loosen the rope enough, if we didn’t keep the legs apart.

The height of the rock which we were going to rappel was 40 feet. I was second to go. Initially I was a bit nervous. As soon as I started getting down I thought I was going to loose my grip and grabbed the rope tighter. Milind, the instructor told me to loosen the rope. He also told me to keep the legs apart. Half-way down I got a hold and was comfortable much before I got down on my feet. Later I realized that in fact one can leave both hands and descend. By 10:30 we were all through with the session. Rappelling done we got ready for what Avishkar termed as ‘riskier than rappelling’. He told us that in our enthusiasm to pick up loads of trash, one should not put his/her hands into holes as they might be home to some reptiles or creepy crawlies. Human wastes like Bottles, Chocolate Wrappers, plastic covers and other such non bio-degradable wastes had to be picked up. Last year somebody had individually collected 35 kilos of waste. This time around there was prizes to be given out by the sponsors ‘Nature Valley’.

It was 12 pm. Avishkar gave us 2 hours time to gather as much as we could. By around 1:45 p.m. I could pick up half a bag of trash and decided to accumulate the same. When it was weighed it came around 3 kilos. Somebody had already brought 16 kilos. Avishkar extended the time limit by 10 minutes more and finally some body brought 42 kilos of waste. A music band ‘Asmaan’ had come over specially to distribute the three prizes. First runner up was Pronita. Second runner up was Arvind and the winners were Ravi and Rohit. Every participant received two packs of Chocolate from Nature Valley. We were done by 3:05 p.m. I left the park with a thought of a day well spent for a social cause by all the participants.