Coimbatore walls get a makeover
Students, Home Guards paint the town
By : pramila krishnan
Update: 2014-09-07 03:58 GMT
Coimbatore: Scores of passersby on Goodshed road in the city were surprised on Saturday morning to see a large group of college students and Home Guard personnel descend there with paint buckets and brushes.
For the first time, a group of Home Guard personnel joined hands with college students to clean the walls on the street and paint social themes on them. City-based Aram Foundation and southern railway who joined the students and Home Guard personnel for this initiative, were overwhelmed by the result.
While first-year BE (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) student S. Sanjay mixed the colours, a Home Guard assisted him to draw a picture on child labour. Sanjay and his classmate Naresh Kumar struck up friendship with the Home Guards and splashed colours on the walls.
"We had fun and enjoyed the work. Our paintings had themes on children, literacy, saving water and electricity," they said. They are confident that these beautiful paintings will definitely stop the passersby from spitting and urinating on the walls.
The entire stretch of Goodshed road was transformed on Saturday with as many as 50 paintings decorating the walls by the end of the day. Balaji Raju, Coimbatore district area commander for Home Guards, said the initiative was an eye-opener for him.
"I was amazed to see so many of our Home Guard personnel with good artistic skills. This initiative brought out their hidden talent. The fresh thoughts of students and drawing skills of the Home Guards worked wonders on these walls," he said.
Saturday's event has encouraged the Home Guards to take up similar work in other government buildings. "We have agreed to work on similar projects in Pollachi and Mettupalayam," Raju told Deccan Chronicle.