Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka

Returning the Favor to the City

It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here, what better time than now”, thus aired Guerrilla Radio RATM. The broadcast best answers the questions arising from the sheer frustration of a billion people and an urge to make a change. There has been too much harassment of the institutions that were actually meant to cater us- both public and private, and the people needed a revolution to turn things. The only part they couldn’t get through was who’s job it should be. Who will be the revolutionary? The youth, in wake of recent events, has understood that it has to be them, that it has to be done now, right where they stood.

And so it happens, that the broadcast explains, in minimal words, the drive behind LUCKNOW Society’s Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka campaign. The campaign began in March with an aim to not only work for the betterment of the city, but also to inspire people all around us. The first phase of the activity has begun with a ‘fight against filth’, primarily against the posters that encroach the view of Lucknow city and kill its beauty.

The campaign has been a huge success and we will enter our 20th activity this month. The response of the people has been ridiculously overwhelming, explosive even. But what has been even more overwhelming is the campaign’s impact on our young revolutionaries. The change they have gone through are the real achievement, for this change, when propogated through the masses, will put an end to the cycle of recurrence of our problems.

As we enter our 20th activity in August, let’s look at what our volunteers have to say about the campaign. Let’s know their experiences, in their own words.

Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka…It’s our initiative. Here, I have added ‘our’ because now being a part of the LUCKNOW Society for last two years it has become ours. Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka gives us a feeling of togetherness and responsibility towards our society and city; it tells us to keep our city clean and beautiful and till now we have worked on unwanted posters and advertisement bills. Aarzoo sir, an individual with an extraordinary vision, is the brain behind the scenes. The team work we do has become a mark for all of us as a lifetime experience & many of us would have surely added it as a lifetime event to their Facebook timelines. This initiative has given us a meaningful platform to work together for the betterment of our city and country.

– Kapil Pal

Everybody wants to work for this but not everybody gets the right person to guide them. Aarzoo sir initiated this campaign and I got to be a part of it. And thus, I got to be a medium for a lot of other people, telling them that there is such a thing and they can be a part of it. Many from my office have joined too. It has gone viral in the Internet and has a great impact, on me as well as on everyone associated.

– Sagar Agarwal

Everyone dreams of a dwelling that is well maintained, resourceful, comfortable and on the top of it clean, isn’t it? I personally feel that cleanliness is a fundamental responsibility of every citizen.

In the rapid rat race for livelihood we have forgotten that it is our duty to give back to the society twice as much as we take. I, being a part of youth in Lucknow, support this campaign with full dedication and respect. I still remember the excitement and energy flow between all the volunteers at the first day of activity. We ourselves and many more passers-by were appreciating our task and making us feel proud.

As soon as our first activity was completed successfully, we were overwhelmed by the response of the people appreciating us directly or through social networking site. And today we have lots of helping hands from various parts of Lucknow to join and take this activity to a great end.

Many a times, pals passing us by at the time of activity in process, laugh, giggle and in fact ask weird questions like “What will you get after doing this?”, “This is a waste…waste of time and energy” etc. etc.,and we being Lucknowites, pass a beautiful smile as our answer as smiling is not only in our culture but our habit too. All the negative responses from each direction make us feel like “Yeah…we are going in right direction!”

Our motive is simple-we want our city clean, tidy and poster free. And the good thing is we are working and people are positively appreciating and approaching us as well. Our aim will definitely be a sheer success.

– Pradeep Charagh

I had people around me, near my house who littered a lot and urinated in the open. I objected to their activities while they objected to my objections. These people from the temple and these politicians here would ask me why I had such a problem. They’d tell me to avert my eyes from what displeased me. I’d reply by saying that my fight is against the filth, it’ll be them who’d fall ill first. Now, I happen to run a cyber cafe with 5 systems and all of them have slides of KSHA as their wallpapers and screensavers. I have also put up a few black and white posters with me in them. If anyone says anything now, I usher them into my cafe, show them the stuff, the photos of the campaign, and they get it why I’m so anti litter.

The campaign has been a great help and an eye opener. There has been sufficient cleaning and people help me now when I try to do all the cleaning by myself.

– Mohit Madaan

A lot of people just talk and think about cleanliness but no one takes responsibility to make our surrounding better,clean and safe to live. I want to make better changes, not only to our surrounding place but even to those away, where people think why it is our job to clean . I believe in making things better from my end as well as by inspiring others too, who think why I do this & how to do this. And so I request all those people please come to join “Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka” and turn your vision into reality like I did. Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka always motivates me to make my belief come true and I am proud to be part of it!

– Raghav

Hey guys Amit here. I always wanted to give my bit to my city in any fruitful way and this opportunity was provided by LUCKNOW Society initiative Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka. I got to know about this activity through Facebook and I filled the volunteer form and joined the activity. My first activity was at Hazartganj. I was very excited and happy for the activity. We removed the posters and coloured the electric boards. I saw the same excitement and determination in other volunteers too. It was one of the most amazing experiences I had. And from then my journey started and the more I used to do the activity the more I got motivated. That feeling which you get wen you do the activity is super amazing. Earlier it was an option for me, now this activity is my priority and the people in the activity are so friendly and supportive that it seems like we all are one family. And the most important thing is that we have taken the pledge of making every wall free of posters and we will make it one day. I want to say to the people out there- come support us in our cause Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka.

– Amit Kumar

I feel satisfied and dignified each time when I participate in the activity instead of wasting my time on Sunday in sleeping. I love to perform my duty as an Indian citizen to keep and help people in keeping my city and country clean. Would like to continue with the LUCKNOW Society in future and look forward to get heavy-duty responsibilities where I could contribute enormously.

– Sanket Chandra

I am proud to be attached with such a good initiative because numerous irresponsible persons of Lucknow who call themselves NAWABS are spoiling the beauty of Lucknow by sticking posters and making the city untidy. So for this issue a big change is needed and we have to make the initiation and definitely I think in few months this can be possible that our atithis who visit Lucknow will appreciate and applaud the beauty and and the Nawabi culture of Lucknow. I have joined the initiative to serve my city and to make it posterfree. I thank to all my seniors as well as all the members who help me out in this wonderful cause. After accomplishing the activities I feel so proud when group members as well as other people applaud me for the work I do with other members of Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka. In future I, with full dedication, will accomplish all my task.

– Ashutosh Srivastava

I had always been wishing for so long to return some favor to my city and to the society of this beautiful city. So here I finally got that opportunity to returning my part of the favor. Showing and making folks of Lucknow aware of the cleanliness, and also making them understand their responsibilities towards the city is something which kept me going with the Team Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka. It also provided me to enhance the skills I never knew existed in me. It emboldened the confidence in me, taught me the truest definition of team work and enthusiasm. It also provided me to be friends with some amazing people who volunteered in this activity.

– Jay Deep Ghosh

I’d also like to thanks the members of the LUCKNOW Society for taking such a great initiative and giving me an opportunity to work with them.

I always wanted to do something for my city, for the place I was born in, for the place which is a personification of beauty and heritage, where there are diversified forms of people, food and culture, for the city which is a place of Nawabs and Kebabs, for Lucknow…

Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka has given me this opportunity to do something for my city, for my Lucknow. It has been 6months now that I am a part of LUCKNOW Society. I have been a part of 6 to 7 activities of this initiative and it has given me so much peace and satisfaction which is beyond explanation. Doing something for the place you belong to gives you a kind of inner happiness and satisfaction which is priceless.

I feel proud to be a part of Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka and would request everybody out there to join us, to do something good for our city, for our Lucknow; after all “Kyunki Shahar Hai Aapka”.

– Ankita Sharma

In our system today where a common man has many issues but no doors to knock at, the LUCKNOW Society has taken an initiative regarding improving general hygiene and they gave me an opportunity to take up a stand. I’ve joined this activity because I want to learn and experience. I’ve learned the biggest lesson “how difficult a change is”. People always paste pamphlets on pillars and deface walls, and after that they also want a clean city. I think it’s not only government’s responsibility, it’s also about the society where we all are living. We know from our past that many battles have been won by a united effort. So it’s time to join our hands together and call out those who want to be a part of this change.

I am obliged to Mr. Shamim Aarzoo who gave me this opportunity to contribute in a positive manner to our very own “Nawabo ka Shehar”.

Being a part of KSHA has helped me in thinking bigger and better about relevance. It is easy to say “society should be reformed” but the challenge lies in converting this incent into action.

-Saumya Pandey

Akansha

(Published in The Lucknow Observer, Volume 2 Issue 17, Dated 05 August 2015)