On November 5, I learnt three things. One, UFO is an acronym not just for an ‘unidentified flying object’, but also for any area that may lie ‘under a fly-over’. I agree that’s just verbal gymnastics, but the other two lessons from the day are extremely valuable. Lesson number two: Elaborate planning is not always necessary to set right a wrong. Sometimes, a problem can be ‘spotfixed’. Lesson number three: A great idea is all it takes to raise a volunteer force. These lessons came from an exercise carried out by a hurriedly raised army of volunteers to ‘spotfix’ a section of Anna Nagar under the aegis of The Ugly Indian (TUI). They were engaged in the makeover of an UFO area at the Anna Nagar Arch. Some were clearing the footpaths of debris. Some were painting the walls. Some were painting the walls.
The Bengaluru-based TUI has been enabling civic-minded citizens in Indian metros to solve a civic problem in any part of their city by providing them with necessary materials and suggestions on how to go about the ‘spotfixing’ work.
To get the terminology right, “spotfixing” is used here to denote ‘quickly fixing a area” that is in dire need of a clean-up.
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Under TUI's Project UFO, a group of citizens identify an ‘ugly’ spot in the city and alert The Ugly Indians, through email, with the details and ideas to beautify the spot.
TUI then provides the group with more ideas/suggestions, besides offering the required materials, which include aprons, paint, brushes, rollers and even stick-on stencils.
These makeovers are carried out with the support of the city authorities. In the case of Chennai, it will be the authorities of the Greater Chennai Corporation.
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On November 5, over 50 employees from Sundaram Fasteners Ltd volunteered to clean and beautify the UFO area in Anna Nagar.
“We preferred the Anna Nagar flyover as this is the starting point of the area, and is therefore the right spot to start the beautification process,” says Srividya, one of the volunteers heading the group.
The team removed garbage and debris from the footpaths, painted the medians and the walls of a hospital.
Incidentally, this is the fourth citizens-led clean-up in the city, carried out with the support of TUI.
In August, the first phase of Anna Nagar UFO was executed by another group of volunteers.
In September, volunteers from different walks of life came together to convert paan -stained pillars into clean and colourful ones.
If you want suggestions on how to fix an ugly spot, tell them how 'you' plan to fix it. Send it to theuglyindians@gmail.com ,along with images and the exact location.