There are many people who try to provide the city a facelift. However, faced with a huge and daunting task, most back out after the first few attempts.
This is not the case for The Ugly Indian (TUI) group which slowly, without creating waves, has managed to clean and paint 100 BESCOM boxes in the city within 29 days.
Not interested in publicity or photo-ops, The Ugly Indian is a gathering of volunteers who want to remain strictly anonymous. In line with world-wide movements like Anonymous, the idea of which is that the focus must stay on the people and not individuals, The Ugly Indians have been beautifying various areas in the city for quite some time now.
What started as an initiative at a few areas with the help of BESCOM officials has completed a century within 29 days. The kind of speed with which the volunteers are working has drawn smiles all around.
“It is a path-breaking achievement by them. They have shown the people how to go beyond just talking about things. We appreciate the group coming forward (to this work),” said BESCOM managing director P Manivannan.
In typical TUI style, the only indication that this milestone had been achieved was a anonymous post on their Facebook page which said, “Ugly IPL update! RCB scores a Century! Responsible Citizens of Bangalore (RCB) have now fixed over 100 Ugly Boxes in Bangalore City Centre-since April 1. Let’s salute the 100 citizens and 20 BESCOM Staff involved in this unique partnership.”
This success has drawn the attention of many people from other cities who post regularly on the walls asking for help to start similar chapters in their cities.
“Just focus on your street. Be selfish about it. The government will talk to you if you are serious,” is the advice handed out to such information seekers.
The volunteer model coupled with financial assistance has worked out well for the city’s energy utility who is looking forward to more volunteers approaching it with offers of help.
“The state government will hold hands of people who are serious. We will not shy away from providing support. Whoever wants to do any work is free to post on the BESCOM page on Facebook or approach The Ugly Indian group. If we find them to be serious about helping out, we shall also deal with them directly,” Manivannan said.