A shirt, a pair of trousers, one handkerchief, numerous pairs of slippers, a couple of bottles of nail polish, and an eyeliner.
If you all think that this is my summer shopping list, it's not. These were some of the “interesting” waste collected by a large group of people at the Madanapuram lake in Mudichur village, near Tambaram.
Job well done
A mass lake clean-up programme was organised by the Environmentalists Foundation of India (EFI) in association with the US Consulate, last week.
On a Saturday afternoon, armed with gloves and spades the 42 U.S. sailors joined hands with the Mudichur residents and student volunteers from nine different schools to clean the “plastic-sprinkled” banks of the lake.
They were soon joined by the sailors who did quite a fast job of cleaning up the area.
The sailors belong to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, guided missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill, and guided missile destroyer USS Halsey. As part of their annual “Malabar Programme”, these ships are here at Chennai now.
Team work
Everyone was running about clearing filled buckets and getting more gloves and spades which were sponsored by the US Consulate. The Corporation too played its part by bringing in a truck to collect all the garbage.
The sailors were quite happy to interact with the students and tell them about their work in the navy.
After almost an hour of tedious work, the participants sat back and enjoyed a street play put up by Arun Krishnamurthy of EFI along with a group of students.
Nandini is a student of Sir Sivaswami Kalalaya, Senior Secondary School .
