Tree plantation drive

A few KritiKal-ites had volunteered for the tree plantation drive which was organized by a social organization named “Kalpavriksha” in Mayur Vihar phase 1 at Sahyog Apartment park on 20th September. All of us had to assemble at the Sahyog Apartments at 8am. Prachi had come all the way from Lajpat Nagar, Delhi. The remaining of us (Meetu, Rana, Madan and I) were in Noida from different sectors. Madan had come to my house in sector 15 at 7am from where we decided to walk till the venue. We had entered Mayur Vihar by 7:30 but it took us half an hour to locate where exactly was Sahyog Apartments. Even the rikshaw pullers had not heard the name. I called up Prof. Prabhakar Rao and he asked me to locate Supreme Apartments and the venue was just in front of it. To my relief, people did know Supreme Apartments and one man who was on his morning walk guided us well. Madan and I finally reached there by 8:10 am. Prachi and Pradipta had already reached there. Rana was on his way and Meetu had already notified us that she would be late since she had another meeting to attend in the morning. There were a couple of more people till then. Later many more kept joining us from time to time.

There were around 50 shrubs and trees which we planted together. It was a great experience. So many strange faces around and all of us working together for a good cause. Pradipta had hurt himself while digging and was bleeding but his enthusiasm had overpowered everything else. He applied the soil on the wound and just carried on with the job. A very old lady (70+) who was there for her morning walk kept asking us if she could help us in anyway. In-fact everyone around there seemed to be motivated by the sight of people planting trees all over, covered in mud and soil. It was funny how Prachi attended a phone call. She took out her handkerchief, wrapped it on her hands and then tried pulling out her cellphone from the pocket :) Everyone gathered after planting all the trees. I was really surprised to know it was 10:30. I never realized I had spent more than 2 hours there. Finally Professor Rao thanked everyone for turning up and we thanked him for giving us such an opportunity and also asked him to let us know of any such future events as well. Then we had a brief introduction session and then finally all of us dispersed.

Pradipta took leave and the remaining of us (Meetu, Prachi, Rana and I) headed for Guruvayurappan Temple. Its a beautiful temple maintained by the local Tamilians there. The actual motivation behind visiting the temple was the food stall outside the temple. All of us were hungry and we thought that its some kind of a “langar” where they were distributing “wada and dosa”. But Meetu, Prachi and Rana suggested that we first visit the temple and then eat something. So all of us went to the temple, prayed for a while and came out. The food stall was no “langar” but that did not deter us from attacking at the stall. All of us ate like we had not eaten in ages :) And the food was too good. Madan himself being a south indian testified that it was one of the best south indian food he had eaten in a long time.

It was a very tiring but a satisfying exercise for all of us. I finally reached home at 11:45 am, took a bath and slept till late afternoon. The experience was great, though I am not that good at words to express what it was like. I had a great time and I look forward to getting more such opportunities in future.