Lifting the concept of Gandhigiri from the film Munna Bhai MBBS, residents of the upscale Purvanchal Royal Park in Sector 137, Noida, have applied the idea to an initiative meant to make the road in front of their apartment complex a safer one.
Armed with roses, a group of five Purvanchal residents have been standing by the road and stopping drivers from taking an illegal turn. “Instead of taking a U-turn, which involves a bit of extra driving, most people in the area take the easy way out by simply taking a sharp turn through a narrow gap in the divider. This is dangerous,” says the very vocal Richa Aniruddha, a popular RJ and a Purvanchal resident.
The campaign, which was launched on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, involves educating drivers on why they should not be taking the wrong turn. “We talk to them politely, request them to use the U-turn and give them a rose,” says Richa.
The campaign was stopped during Diwali “to avoid bad blood and confrontation during the festive time”.
Well, they would know. There was one instance in which the driver got so furious that he threatened to run them over. Another time, a woman from a prominent media house got very abusive. “We told her that by violating a traffic rule, she was setting a bad example for her co-passenger, her kid. That was enough for her to blast us off,” laughs Richa.
Most of the time, however, drivers listen and apologise. The biggest achievement so far has been stopping school buses from taking the wrong turn. “We told them that if they continue to violate the rule, we would complain to the school authorities,” says Richa. And it worked.
There are about 20 residents of Purvanchal involved in this campaign. They communicate through WhatsApp, and whoever is free volunteers to come out. As long as there are five people, they go ahead with the campaign. As of now, there are two slots: Early morning, during school-going time; and evening, between 6 pm and 8 pm.
The group "tweets" about its campaign to Noida Authority and Noida police. And indeed, seeing its efforts, Noida police has come forward to help.
"They have been very supportive," says Anirudh Phadke, one of the residents involved in the campaign. "They have already come a few times and issued challans to rule-breaking drivers. They have also told us we can call them whenever we need to.”
More importantly, seeing their work, other residents have started showing interest in the campaign. “I want to salute you," a neighbour told Richa the other day.
Not an RWA initiative — there is none at Purvanchal now — the group is entirely composed of professionals who put in their bit whenever they get the time.
Of course it helps that Richa is a radio jockey, a TV anchor and the editor of a school magazine, and shares a personal rapport with the top officials of Noida Authority and Noida police.
Gandhigiri these days needs some dadagiri too.
