It was an unusual accessory that girls taking the stage for a dance item at Salt Lake Point School had in hand — a broom. After all, the occasion they were celebrating was Cleanathon.
Four clubs — Inner Wheel Club of Salt Lake City, Inner Wheel Club of Salt Lake Downtown, Inner Wheel Club of Salt Lake Midtown and Inner Wheel Club of Salt Lake Uptown — had come together to mark the international Inner Wheel week. This year, their theme was Awareness for Cleanliness.
So, broom in hand, six girls swayed to Maar jharu maar and the Swachh Bharat campaign song sung by Kailash Kher to spread awareness about the need for cleanliness among students. The programme was attended by students of classes VI, VII and VIII.
District chairman of Inner Wheel Club, Jayeshree Pal Chowdhury also attended the event. “This year we have decided to celebrate a whole week, instead of the day (January 10). Cleanliness is next to godliness. Not only our rooms but we should also keep our environment clean. Spreading awareness on this topic is very important. Throughout this week we are using different ways to spread the message among people,” said the chairman.
The celebration in school organised by the Inner Wheel clubs featured skits as well as song and dance performances — all laced with the message.
Salt Lake Downtown presented a dance by president Sonali Basak’s troupe. “Through our dance we are celebrating cleanliness. While showing the students how we should keep our environment clean, we are also entertaining them,” said Basak.
Students of The Ideal School for the Deaf from CF Block performed next. The act was sponsored by Inner Wheel Club of Salt Lake City. Abhishek Bhattacharya, Anjan Rajke, Gopal Adhikari and Abhijeet Rudra presented a five-minute mime show. They showed that if you have a pet at home, you should properly train it and when taking them for a walk you should clean up after them with a scooper. Nor should you dump wastes on the road as it is not only the work of the sweepers but ours too to see that our environment is clean.
Seven members of the Midtown club performed a parody song, changing the lyrics of Salil Chowdhury’s Dhitang dhitang bole to Eksathe jhnyata tule, conducted by Mitali Mitra.
Ratna Saha, a member of the Uptown club, spoke on keeping the surroundings clean to protect ourselves from various diseases.
While the students of Salt Lake Point School enjoyed the acts they also took back a few lessons. “I didn’t know the process of disposing the waste of our pets. That is something I learnt today,” said Sharadiya Banerjee of Class VIII who aims to become an ecologist. Tanu Gond was happy to gather all the information in an entertaining way. “I enjoyed the mime act the most. They performed very well,” she said, promising to make sure that no one around her polluted the environment.
