Coastal Cleanup
Woke up at 4.30 AM and gave wake up call to Lakshmanan and Surya. Our plan is to meet in Besant Nagar Beach at 5.45 AM for the CTC’s Coastal Cleanup Drive. I started at 5:00 AM from home and Surya joined me in his Cycle. The road was completely empty and we rushed through to Besant Nagar and reached there sharply at 6:00 AM. Lakshmanan came just before we arrived.
 |
| Beach Beach Beach 😀 |
There was a small Briefing by CTC volunteer on the cleanup and then Bags and Gloves were distributed. We equipped ourselves with the provided kit and started engaging the Garbage. Soon like in half an hour, I got too tired to pick things up, but didnt say a word to the guys, so as not to sound discouraging. Another half an hour passed and we collected around 4 baggages of Garbage, segregated into bags of Light Plastics, Hard Plastics and Others. Its past 7:00 AM and my tiredness overwhelmed my determination and I declared my intention of stopping and leaving. Lakshmanan and Surya agreed.
Army of Volunteers
We sat there for some time enjoying the early morning Sun in Beach. The Beach was completely surrounded with Volunteers that day, where one swarm of Volunteers swiped through the Huts and cleaning towards Tiruvanmiyur and another bunch was deeply exploring into Broken Bridge region. It all looked and felt like an Army of Soldiers going to war.
My another friend, Praveen came little late, but we couldn’t find each other in mid of all this Army. So, he started picking in a separate place.
 |
| Lakshmanan and Surya After Cleanup |
 |
| Lakshmanan and Surya Edge of Broken Bridge |
Then we decided to visit Broken Bridge and went there. Took some snaps there, and we dared ourselves to jump down the Broken Bridge despite our tiredness. There was a small pillar at the end of broken bridge which helped us to jump down and later climb up the bridge with little effort.
After all the fun in Broken Bridge we left the place around 8.30 AM.
Cycling Back and Adyar Banyan Tree
Since both of us, myself and Surya were much tired, we cycled slowly to home and reached Saidapet by 10. While on the way, Alagappan called and asked if we could setup a Garden in his home today. We were discussing on the same for past couple of weeks and since we didnt get time in the past, we were postponing it.
But I decided not to postpone anymore, and went straight to Alagappan home.
Also, Surya told me of this Adyar Banyan Tree, which is around 450 years old and lies inside the campus of Theosophical society, Adyar. We thought of giving it a visit, but since it was Sunday, its closed.
Plantation
We were discussing on what plants to buy, where to buy for more than an hour. And started to Adambakkam, the nearest place where we know of some nurseries. The Isha Nursery wont be having many flowering plants, and its closed on that day, so we went to some other Nursery and bought 4 plants (Ixora, Kangambaram and Roses) with 3 pots that costed around Rs. 400. We had 1 pot in our home and decided to use it.
 |
| Alagappan Gardening |
We took all to home, then we hunted for sand and Organic fertilisers for remaining one plant/pot. After little search and some advice from our Field expert, Satish Bonthu, we collected enough of those.
Then the nursery work started in Alagappan’s house Terrace. We took a broken Water Pot, split it into two, and put all the sand and Organic Fertilisers into it for the compositing to happen. By the time, Sridhar and Yuvaraj joined us.
We moved a part of this mixture to another pot and planted the remaining one Plant in it. It was all set perfect and I left to home around 9 PM.
Then FULL REST 🙂
Fruits of our labour
 |
| Beautiful Rose (Shot by Alagappan) |
 |
| Ixora Plant (Shot by Alagappan) |
