Artist : Sheetal Parmar / Content Writer : Shama Char
In the town of Anandpur near Vikasnagar, there lived a boy named Raju. True to its name, the town Anandpur, was full of happiness and prosperity. The locals were warm and welcoming people and would go that extra mile to make sure that their district Vikasnagar, was always progressing in every quarter.
Raju was 15 years old and stayed with his parents. He was a clever boy and was very fond of nature. Raju would be a topper in all the science projects and seminars held in his school and also represent his district, for any science fairs. Born and brought up in a middle class family, Raju always would conserve and preserve things to make use of them optimally and in an eco friendly manner. One day, he happened to see a lot of debris near the construction sites of new buildings and had an idea.He collected the cement, gravel, sand from such sites and approached Gangaiah, a local potter. He asked Gangaiah to make him a few cement bowls for stocking water. Since Raju was liked by all his neighbours, Gangaiah readily agreed and made a few bowls for Raju.
Raju who provides safe drinking water to animals at his place round the clock.
Happily, Raju took these bowls home and started placing one in each corner of the street and started filling them with clean drinking water. Everybody in the town was curious to see what was running in the mind of this nature loving whizkid. A few minutes later all the street animals started quenching their thirst from these clean bowls, containing safe water. Amazed by the presence of mind of this little boy, everybody in the town started taking turns in refilling the bowls and cleaning them at periodic intervals.
This small gesture of the boy had ensured that all street animals had access to clean drinking water. Slowly, people started taking a liking to the animals and began to feed the animals with leftovers and later with freshly cooked meals. This made sure that the animals had no fights in the streets over food and thus the garbage was not strewn in the streets, making them cleaner places. People slowly started segregating the garbage also into dry and wet waste and Raju, along with his teachers would make compost of it.Manure was prepared in the town on their own infrastructure. The town now had many plants were well nourished, animals that were well fed and the total town was now a happier place, “ANANDA PURA”.
Raju support towards animals inspired his village people and after that all the people in the village started giving water to animals round the clock at their places.
Soon Raju’s water bowls concept spread in the neighbouring towns like a wildfire and everyone started installing bowls in their confines. They started feeding the stray animals as well. Customised bowls were ordered and installed in every nook and corner of the streets, throughout Vikasnagar. Awareness camps were held regularly and people were educated on cleaning the bowls at regular intervals and providing safe water in every season. Raju was appreciated by all, for this selfless and noble act of serving the stray animals in a very unique and commendable way, leading to a cleaner, greener and prosperous city of Vikasnagar.