To the grateful residents of Hill Top Colony in Mahendra Hills, Secunderabad, the young team of students from Aurora’s Design Institute are ‘builders.’
Fourth year students Punna Nithish, Manish Anand, Yedla Surender, Bhati Divyansh, Alankritha Khoshekay and Srija Diddi of Jalam Team from the Habsiguda-based college are also akka and anna to the children in the colony, who admiringly follow their every brush stroke.
Meanwhile, residents look forward to seeing them report at 8am every morning, as the students are improving their lives, one step at a time.
One step at a time
For years, the run down colony has been accessed via a treacherous unpaved path, climbing up a steep incline. A network of leaking pipelines posed an additional challenge. Dirty, dangerous and dingy, the area was a sore spot for all. Until the Jalam team stepped in. With the guidance of their professor Naga Praveen Pingali, the team began work six months ago. They began with photo documentation, talking to community stakeholders. Bhati Divyansh says, “We had to overcome quite a few hurdles as the site posed challenges at every stage. Also, it was our first on-site execution project, so things were new to all the team members.”
The Jalam team of Aurora design institute comprising of Punna Nithish, Manish Anand, Yedla Surender, Bhati Divyansh, Alankritha Khoshekay and Srija Diddi who worked on the Hill Top Colony’s ‘Creating meaningful communities’ project by HUL
The students first replaced the slippery slope with a flight of easily negotiable steps. Alongside they also built a channel for the network of pipelines and connected it to a common storage area so water runoff could be stored and used for plants. Next, they set about painting the walls lining the pathway, beautifying it with lively art. Finally, as the project neared completion, the team brought a projector and suggested that residents use one of the blank walls as a projection screen. The aim, in short, says Srija Diddi, is to “create meaningful communities”.
Costing ₹1.75 lakh, the work was funded by Wipro Foundation and formed part of Hyderabad Urban Labs’ ‘intervention with water’ challenge, where 18 groups of students from different colleges participated. Team Jalam finally bagged the project because of the choice of area and the proposed solution.
Life before the steps at Hill Top Colony
Yedla Surender says, “When we saw the Hyderabad Urban Labs poster calling for Water +-(plus and minus) we took this as an opportunity to look at water situations in the city. The search included going around the city and talking to people.”
Manish Anand discovered the Hill Top Colony area, close to Mahendra Hills, which faced water wastage and difficulties arising from the terrain, particularly during the rainy season. The Hill Top Colony had eight such slopes: The Jalam team chose this particular one as it looked manageable to tackle within the given time frame of four months.
Explaining the importance of the project, Praveen says, “Design programme for students is cut off from communities, so when they work with an interactive community it helps them work on practical solutions and not just aesthetics.”
The final look of the colony after the dingy slope was replaced with steps
Water+- took shape at a Round Table on water a few years ago. Anant Maringanti of Hyderabad Urban Lab says, “At the Round Table we discussed surface, pipe, ground, sewage, storm water and the interconnection. This resulted in a series of stories of water.”
Explaining the condition of these slopes, which were approximately 110 degrees, the students say that most residents had some personal story of distress, and some senior residents stopped leaving their homes. Once the path was smoothed and steps built, life changed for everyone.
Manish cites the example of 60-year-old Maku Lakshmaiah who couldn’t stop appreciating the work: “I came out of my house to see the neighbourhood after eight years. I felt like a prisoner, I couldn’t dare to get out because of the dangerous terrain.”
Other families hope to have more visitors now. Jankuti Siva , a 30-year-old marketing executive, believes the stairs can change his life. “ Because the approach to my house looked dangerous, no one wanted to risk giving their daughter to me,” he says. Now, he is hopeful of finding a bride.
