Rhyming and road repairing

"Does anyone have some debris to spare?
We need it ’cos we’ve a road to repair
On 23rd Sunday morn at 8:30
We’re prepared to get wet and dirty
Let’s do some shramdaan and show we care!”
These were two of the limericks that Gulshan Bamboat penned to bring together nearly 50 volunteers on July 23, 2017 to fill potholes on the neglected Gough Road, the main road connecting the city to the cantonment in Secunderabad.

Gulshan Bamboat (top and above) with her active team of shramdaan-ers

The idea germinated when "we were chatting on our WhatsApp group called ‘Sainikpuri and Beyond,’ when the usual complaining about the infamous condition of Gough Road started. On an impulse, I offered to do shramdaan (shram means labor and daan means donation) with my phauda (shovel) and asked if anybody would care to join me.” With support assured by veteran group members like Viji Naidu, Usha Mulay and C. S. Chandrashekar, they fixed up the date. "One very enterprising lady, Manognya Reddy of Sainikpuri, volunteered to bring a trolley of debris, so I asked people to donate debris too. The previous evening, my husband Gev took me around the localities of Sainikpuri where we stay and nearby Vayupuri, and I photographed the locations from where it could be picked up.” Sand and rubble accumulated alongside the road was also put to good use.
They gathered at the site at 8:30 a.m. and using whatever debris was available, the volunteers, assisted by municipal workers and even one traffic policeman, filled the potholes and directed heavy vehicles to go over it to tamp it down. Some of it was washed away in the subsequent heavy rain but most of it remained until the tarring work was undertaken by the authorities. Capt Malcolm Wolfe, founder of Roadkraft Roadsafety (the name says it all), "kept us all safe by directing the traffic and stopping and starting the shramdaan-ers as and when required,” states Gulshan.
The shramdaan-ers appreciated that many people stopped en route to give their time and labor to this effort. Others rolled down their windows to thank and bless them. The social media was abuzz with comments. Asked how it felt to become famous overnight, Gulshan says, "Surprised, astonished, amazed, and overwhelmed all rolled into one and in awe of the power of a simple idea. Perhaps naming it shramdaan had something to do with it? Actually, I was inspired by an 11-year-old boy, Ravi Teja, filling up some of the potholes all by himself in Hyderabad. And then there was that other video clip where a small boy starts pushing a huge tree which had fallen across the road in a storm, and eventually all those caught in the traffic jam help him to get it out of the way. This is the power of one simple step!”

Gulshan Bamboat spearheading the drive to fill potholes (left); and with her core team, at the charity jumble sale

She mentions how a politician stopped and took full opportunity of a photo shoot, carrying a few loads to fill up a pothole, and asking the whole gang to pose with him! "Well, if it was for the common good, who’s to say no?” declares Gulshan before expressing through her limericks the publicity they received:
"Last night the shramdaan-ers were covered by Gemini TV
This morning they were featured in Deccan Chronicle (DC)
CNN-18 followed suit
ANI and HANS took the same route
And now TIMES NOW, with potholes, has got busy!

"Last night we got a call from Radio Mirchi
This morning got to speak with sizzling Shezzi
Shramdaan’s ripple effect
Is making folks reflect
That much can be accomplished through positivity!”
Gulshan was also featured on the PZASH (Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman of Secunderabad and Hyderabad) website.
After the prompt repair of Gough Road within a fortnight, the group continued with its shramdaan efforts that resulted in Neredmet Cross Road getting repaired as also the road in front of a very popular shopping complex. It also helped bring attention of the authorities to a colony on the other side of the Kapra Lake getting flooded with sewage.
Gulshan and her co-workers have started another WhatsApp group, ‘Plastic Free Sainikpuri,’ to discourage use of plastic bags and reintroduce paper bags of yore, and maybe even jute ones.
A fourth generation Secunderabad resident, Gulshan was born to Roshan (née Mehta) and Dady Cawasha Patell. Her late father worked in the (Andhra Pradesh) State Government, and, after retirement, made his mark as a senior citizen who travelled from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and Porbundar to Chabua (North East) on his TVS moped. Her mother who is now 86 years old taught in St Ann’s High School for 23 years and is still fiercely independent, preferring to stay by herself rather than depend on her two daughters. Gulshan studied at the same school and did one year of Pre-University at St Francis College. Thereafter, she did a secretarial course from Davar’s College of Commerce, Bombay, and worked for a year and a half in Indian Detonators Limited.
When 20 years old, Gulshan got married to Gev. He was reportedly the youngest fighter pilot to fly combat sorties in the 1971 Operations and earned the Vayu Sena Medal and the Chief-of-Air-Staff’s commendation for his valor in Pathankot, in the Western Sector, she informs us. After serving all over the country he retired (as wing commander) and settled down in Secunderabad in 1993. Their elder son, Rayomand, who is a captain in the merchant navy, is married to Hutoxi and they have a five-year-old son, Arash. They are at present in Jamnagar. Younger son, Aryamand, works in a finance firm in Hyderabad. Gulshan gratefully adds, "My family supports me fully in all my activities, pulling my leg occasionally.” She prefers to describe Gev as "my B3Q (Better Three Quarter) in all ways, very patient and kind (who himself selflessly helps all the oldies goldies in our part of town) and readily drives me to wherever I need to go.”

Active on many fronts, Gulshan says, "We have many socially responsible people (especially dynamic ladies) in our twin colonies of Sainikpuri and Vayupuri. A core group of six ladies organizes annual charity jumble sales and the money collected is then donated to various worthy causes, including the Zoroastrian Stree Mandal. The ‘Kapra Lake Revival’ group is trying to clean up the lake in their area and safeguard it against pollution and encroachers. The ‘Sparrows for Sainikpuri’ group is committed to the cause of the little birds. The ‘Vatayan’ group meets once a month, where about a dozen ladies read whatever prose or poetry they have written to promote exchange of diverse viewpoints.
She is also a member of Samkshema Independent Ethics Committee which looks after the welfare of people who volunteer in laboratories, testing the bio-availability and bio-equivalence of generic drugs.
A reader with Samrita Trust, she reads and records for the blind, model exam papers for banking, and text books for colleges. Once a week she goes to Sri Sai Junior College for the Blind to interact with the youngsters in English.
"My husband and I are very fond of acting on stage and have taken part in many skits and full-fledged plays all over the country. In fact, he has acted in a number of Telugu films,” reveals Gulshan.
In her spare time Gulshan hones her limerick writing skills. Asked how she embarked on this unusual hobby, she informs us, "My love for limericks was given to me by my father, but it lay dormant in all the years of running the house. Then the internet came along, and thanks to Yahoo!360, I started to blog, and found myself replying to comments in this a-a-b-b-a form of poetry. I do know that they are supposed to be bawdy, but so far no one has objected to my responses being in this form on Facebook, as well as WhatsApp — and I have written 7,716 to date.
On January 1, 2016, again on an impulse, I set myself a challenge that I would write a limerick every day starting with the last word of the previous day’s limerick. By the graces of the muses, I have been able to keep that chain unbroken till today, my Lw/Fw (Lw being Last word and Fw being First word) number 673 so far. As far as publishing them is concerned, I have been mulling over it, but am afraid it will be just that, mulling!”
This magazine too earned a limerick:
Dear Parsiana, to you we’re indebted
Subscribing to you we’ve never regretted
You featured Dr J. V. Undevia
Many a G6PD patient’s savior
Thanks to him — and you — children we’ve begetted!
"I believe very fervently in the power of our prayers,” says the proud Zoroastrian. "Our community in the twin cities is a warm and caring one, most of us knowing three to four generations of families.” Asked to comment on where Parsis are heading with their decreasing numbers, she responds, "Did the dinosaurs worry about their extinction?”