Reader\'s Digest India - 09.2019

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Reader’s Digest

HEROES:

The Tap Fixer

It’s raining heavily in Mumbai, but

Aabid Surti, 83, is ready to step out

to fix leaking taps. “What to do?

This is what I am used to doing on

weekends for more than 12 years

now,” he tells RD. Surti, founder of

the NGO Drop Dead, has been on a

mission since 2007 to fix leaking

taps in the city for free. In all these

years, he has helped save an esti-

mated 12 million litres of water

through his work.

Surti is often found knocking on

peoples’ doors to check if there are

leaking taps in their homes. If the

answer is ‘yes’, the NGO’s plumber

fixes it promptly. Surti is an author,

cartoonist and a painter, but he

says that fixing leaking taps gives

him a “lot of satisfaction.” Indeed,

every drop counts.

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A Friend of the Needy

giving As lakhs of ragpickers and gar-

bage cleaners keep our cities clean,

they face extreme prejudice and dis-

dain. They also work without any pro-

tective gear, are vulnerable to diseases,

and often the worst affected when the

weather turns bad. Sanjana Runwal,

a Mumbai-based class X student,

decided to change this through the

Clean Up Foundation, an NGO that

her elder brother founded in 2017.

Just before the onset of the monsoons,

Sanjana distributed raincoats and

gumboots to nearly 200 ragpickers

and garbage cleaners in Bandra.

Born into an affluent family, Runwal

dreams of becoming a lawyer and

continue helping the less privileged.

Tender Hearts Behind Wheels

humanitarian aid A group of ambu-

lance drivers in Allahabad showed ex-

traordinary kindness in the middle of

a workday in July. Anita, a 16-year-old,

lost both her legs after she was run

over by a train while grazing her goats.

The surgery was done free of cost, but

Anita’s family could not afford the

post-operative care. Moved by their

plight, Santosh, the ambulance driver,

who brought Anita to the hospital, and

his colleagues, not only donated blood

for the surgery but also collected

`50,000 for her subsequent care.

—COMPILED BY V. KUMARA SWAMY