Dirty corner near Raj's house turns pleasant spot

Volunteers clear filth from vacant site to mark actor's birthday

Matinee idol Rajkumar, who lives on in the hearts of millions of Kannadigas, would surely have loved this.

The celebrated actor, who drove home the message of work being worship in his movies, followed the dictum in life too. The Ugly Indian, the City’s non-governmental clean-up group, as if taking a cue from the actor, paid a fitting tribute to him on his birth anniversary on Thursday.

The group gave final touches to their effort at giving a dirty corner near the actor’s house in the posh Sadashivanagar area of the City a sheen seen never before.

Needless to say, Ugly Indian’s deed earned the group brownie points from ‘power star’ Puneeth Rajkumar, the thespian’s son and an actor of calibre himself.

A portion of the footpath abutting Raj’s house had turned a virtual cattle shed, with cows being tethered there by their owners. It turned a haven for drunkards during the night hours, much to the discomfort of the footpath users and neighbours.

That was when the Ugly Indian’s volunteers decided to commemorate Raj’s birth anniversary through ‘spot-fixing,’ the term they use to get rid of ugly spots and make them pleasing for the eyes.

The volunteers, who gathered in good numbers, removed garbage, cleaned the footpath and painted the compound wall. To top it all, they placed flower pots there and arranged a bench, so that pedestrians can rest there and watch the world go by.

On Thursday, Puneeth sat on the bench with the Ugly Indian volunteers for some time and hailed their work, which they took up without waiting for the civic agency to do its job.

Once the spot was fixed, TUI announced on its Facebook page, “Another stunning view! Dr Rajkumar Tribute SpotFix! This footpath opposite Dr Rajkumar’s home in Sadashivanagar, Bangalore has been a 24x7x365 dump for all kinds of muck. This morning it was transformed by a group of 30 committed citizens. The view from the window will now be so much better, not to mention the absence of stink.”

They had a piece of advice for others too. “It doesn’t matter how powerful or loved you are - the only way to banish ugly black spots from outside your home is to plunge in and fix them. We believe the great man would have been proud of the citizens who took the plunge this morning,” the FB page said.