The steady stream of vehicle users and pedestrians near Anna Bus Stand had a pleasant sight on Sunday. The Thiruvalluvar statue opposite the bus stand wore a new look with the pedestal freshly painted and the statue itself sporting a new coat of golden paint.
The spruced up statue was part of an initiative by ‘Vaa Nanba,’ a collective formed by students, entrepreneurs and working professionals in the city to clean and maintain statues. The statues and busts of famous poets and the ‘Tamil Annai’ that they spruced up were installed during the 5th World Tamil Conference held in Madurai from January 4 to 10, 1981.
The initiative was inaugurated at the Tamil Annai statue located near Tamukkam Grounds on Sunday morning by Mayor V.V. Rajan Chellappa and Corporation Commissioner C. Kathiravan.
“To commemorate the 34th year since the World Tamil Conference was held in Madurai, we decided to give a facelift to the statues which were installed in the city at that time. We approached the city corporation with a proposal,” said M. C. Saravanan, secretary of the collective, which has over 250 volunteers.
Mr. Saravanan and his team are involved in planting saplings and organising cleanliness drive in educational institutions.
Among the 13 statues given a facelift by the team, many had damaged pedestals and cracks; their coat of paint was peeling off; and all of them were disfigured with posters and graffiti. The Thiruvalluvar statue badly needed a coat of paint while the Mayuram Vedanayagam Pillai bust near Raja Muthiah Mandram had notices pasted all over the pedestal.
The volunteers split into 13 teams of 15 persons each and worked on the statues from 10 a.m. Apart from clearing the weeds around the pedestal and removing the posters, they gave the statues a fresh coat of paint. “Our team has a mix of students, painters, architects, teachers and doctors. So we pooled our expertise to do the best,” said a painter, who worked on one of the statues.
The cost of the materials used, which included brooms, tools, brushes and paints, was borne by volunteers of the group who raised the resources among themselves.
The Kavimani Desigavinayagam Pillai bust at Tallakulam, Tholkappiar statue near KK Nagar Arch, Robert De Nobili statue near Fatima College and V. Kalyanasundaranar bust at Kalavasal were among those given a facelift.
“Many of these statues of the great poets who contributed to Tamil literature lie unnoticed by people and we hope that by giving them a facelift, people will be reminded of their invaluable contribution. Statues were also once used as landmarks to refer to areas and provide directions, but that is not how people refer to areas now,” said A. Raguman, the president of ‘Vaa Nanba.’
While inaugurating the drive, Mr Chellappa stressed the need to preserve and maintain structures of historical importance.
“More youths and such organisations should come forward to keep the city clean,” he said. The volunteers also took an oath, led by the Mayor and Commissioner, to keep the city clean and preserve ancient structures.
After sprucing up the 13 statues, the volunteers fixed small banners near them detailing the name of the statue and information on the date of installation and historic background. Small placards, which also urged people not to litter and to keep the statues clean, were installed.
