MISSION ‘SPIC N SPAN’

It is said that ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’, we got the picture bright and clear!!. It all started one fine day when our usually smiling, Cultural Education tutor, Mr.Jagananthan, entered our class to have his smile transformed into a dismayed look. There was a stunned silence when he said that our class room didn’t, in the least, look like a place of study. This made us look around the room - we indeed were sitting in the midst of all rubbish and dirt. When Sir said that he felt very uncomfortable taking classes in such an atmosphere, we realized the gravity of the situation. Only then it dawned upon us that it was high time something is done to amend the situation rather than waiting for things to happen; but how??

Lots of ideas / suggestions started pouring in – one said ‘notices’ and the other - ‘competitions’ . There were even suggestions for an Amrita Exonera Club. Finally we decided to take things (brooms, mop sticks, dustbins, literally) into our own hands than blaming or depending on others. This proved to be a turning point. We took to our hearts the saying ‘Actions speak louder than words’. To start with, it was decided that the 3 ECE sections – A, B, C would be our area of work

Now that What? and How? were answered, we started planning the process flow. Our class, ECE-A, was divided into six teams. Two teams were to take charge of one class on a rotational basis, to carry out the following activities.

• Sweeping the classroom - the toughest part, especially for those of us who hadn’t even started cleaning our hostel rooms!

• Dusting the furniture- everybody’s favourite !

• Cleaning/decorating the blackboards- for the artistically talented

• Tidying the windows- support from outside [obviously, to clean the windows we will have to stand outside!!!]

• Arranging the furniture - a place for everything and everything in its place.

And finally

• Lighting up incense sticks in the classrooms in the morning.

We set to action immediately. All the necessary things were bought and we started off with our tasks the very next day. Our Sir, who never failed in giving his unflinching support was also present to help us out wherever possible. The positive feedback which we received from some teachers made us feel proud of ourselves, and we realized that our efforts are not going waste.

Though three weeks have passed since we started this project, it has yet to gain the expected momentum. But sustenance is as important as the initiation, hence we are determined to ‘keep on keeping on’ and are optimistic that others will follow suit in common interest.

Self help is the best help.