Sep 6, 2016

Safer Roads, Safer India “Classrooms with a Cause” Program is focused on enhancing road safety in India and has been conceptualized by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Youth Services America (YSA) together. TRAX is acting as the manager for the project.

Today, The Arundhati Foundation received a teaching grant under the aegis of this program to lead 25 volunteers below the age of 25 on a Road Safety Project. For a young foundation, it is an achievement and a moment of pride.

It has been exactly two years since the day Aru came home one last time before her accident..it’s a painful day. I would like to take this as a sign that Aru tells us that she is with us in spirit, guiding us on a mission of spreading awareness on Road safety .

Thank you, YSA and UL. Above all, Thank you, Aru.

The Arundhati Foundation is lucky to have so many well wishers. Today, I would like to Introduce Mr. Shanmugam to all of you.

Mr Shanmugam has a tailoring shop on Cambridge Road. He has donated five 25 litre empty water cans. We “modify” these water cans to make them into dustbins which we install on the roadside to collect dry waste. These cans draw inspiration from TERE BINS which we had installed as a part of launching of VIKRAM program last year. Unfortunately, the TERE BINS were stolen because these were re-enforced with metal rings and metal can be sold as scrap.

Mr Shanmugam can easily sell these empty cans for atleast rupees 50 a piece. Yet he chooses to give these cans to us so that we can use these to replace the TERE BINS. Contrast this behaviour with the well educated people working in offices in the commercial side of our building. These young folks not only smoke in public, but also throw burning cigarettes into these plastic bins. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to know that plastic burns. So each time a bin burns, Mr Shanmugam gives us a can.

Just goes to show that it is the attitude that matters and not just “education”
It also shows that one need not be rich an famous to support a good cause.

On behalf of the foundation we thank Mr Shanmugam for his generosity. It is people like you who make a difference!.

On 16 July, we did a session at Indo-US MIM, Dodaballapur.  It was extremely well organized.

Safety as a value is ingrained into the culture of the organization and they live it everyday on the shop floor. We urged them to extend the same to the roads.

We have reworked our presentation. A video from the Kolkata police has been added, the statistics are presented with more impactful graphics, the order of slides has been changed, and the presentation is more crisp now with the core message built around the 5 elements of the pledge.

We think it had some impact – and we were extremely touched by the gesture of the Indo-US MIM team who stood up and took the pledge along with us.

Thank you, Manoj Kabre (Vice President – Sales & Marketing at Indo-US MIM Tec Pvt. Ltd) – you have been a true friend of the Foundation, helping us spread the message.

And Thank you, Avinash, the designated Safety Officer,  for the efficient organization and the wonderful collage.

JUNE 13, 2016

It was a pleasure to be of some help to the Ashoknagara Traffic Police.

A big Thank you to Mr Raju Naik for his sincere and earnest help rendered to all his colleagues. He was instrumental in seeing that 80 police personel got raincoats.

The simple , well organized and sincere gathering we had was so much in line with what Aru believed in..
It was a pleasure to interact with ACP CEntral Division Mr Nataraj and Inspector Mr. Mohd. Siraj. Mr Nataraj encouraged his troop to help accident victims even if it meant going beyond the call of duty. We would like to thank both of them for being around to encourage the personel and the foundation.

We will partner with the police station to see that the personel get a refreshers training in advanced first aid.
To Mala Shyam and Shyam Kokku, the twenty happy police personel you directly sponsored say a big Thank you..
Also Team @ Travel Zone OPH road Shivajinagar. Thank you for your help in sourcing the right kind of raincoats.

A couple of more pics here :

Potholes have reappeared on the Bangalore roads after brief rains. see link

The condition deteriorates pretty quickly if action is not taken. Bangalore is a regular witness to accidents due to potholes. Some that are acknowledged are noted here and there are many more that do not get recorded as such. The injuries are far more than the fatalities.

Please take a step to bring about the change that you want to see in Bangalore. Artist Baadal Nanjudawamiy uses his creativity to draw attention to the menace. The pictures above speak volumes about his good work.

For most of us, this is difficult. But we can do one simple thing.  Every one of us sees and experiences potholes on our paths – on the street where we live, on our way to work, on the way to our weekend recreation, and so on.   Use BBMP’s Sahaaya website, and log a complaint about the pothole that bothers you. Select Complaint category as Road Maintenance, and Complaint Type as Potholes.  Mark it using the map provided. It will take just 5 minutes.  It gets noted, it gets tracked.

Please do it! now! Go to bbmp.sahaaya.in

Today, the first Sunday of the month (3rd April 2016),  The Arundhati Foundation took up the activity of filling potholes on CAMBRIDGE ROAD. We planned to fill two of them – a big one right opposite St Meera’s School, and a small one near the Voltas shop.  We decided to start with the bigger one.

It  has been a a nightmarish experience for commuters to get past this one as the road leading to it is a narrow road, with a T -junction right in front of School. To add to it, there is a blind turn on the right side with the pot hole sitting pretty right there!

A resident who came up to us to say thanks told us that he has complained to BBMP but nothing has been done about it. It was nice to see people stopping and thanking us for taking this up.

We used 100 Kgs of Shelmac ( ready made cold  mix from Shell)  to fill this pot hole !  This should give a rough idea about the size of this one! It cost the foundation three thousand  rupees ( 3,000/-) to fill this pothole . But we feel satisfied that it might save precious lives of someone like our daughter.

We chose to focus on just the one pothole, and used up all the Shelmac that we had procured. We will tackle the second pothole another day, after we procure more material.

We were joined by our friends and volunteers of the foundation, Mr Ajit Bedekar, Ms Arati Bedeker and Mr Muthukumar. It’s always nice to have friends to give a helping hand and they are a source of emotional support to us  during such activities.  Thank you Arati, Ajit and Kumar!

         

The work of The Arundhati Foundation is being noticed. We were fortunate to have some coverage in the recent past

11 Jan 2016 : In the Economic Times

14 Jan 2016 : In I Change My City

9 Feb 2016 : In The Better India

Thank you for spreading word about The Arundhati Foundation. And Many Thanks to The Friends of The Foundation whose support and well-wishes have helped us.

Together, we will succeed in bringing about the change.