Mangaluru: Scientists have described the moon’s surface as a rocky terrain that is pockmarked with craters formed by the impact of asteroids, millions of years ago. However, it seems that this description bears an uncanny resemblance to Indian roads and particularly, roads in Mangaluru. In an attempt to bring this issue to the attention of the civic authorities, Adlin D’Silva (a class 6 student) wore an astronaut costume and pretended to be a space traveller, doing a “Moonwalk” on the roads, in a video that has gone viral on social media.
The young girl’s initiative was inspired by Bengaluru artist Baadal Nanjudaswamy, who shared a similar video of him “Moonwalking” on the Bengaluru roads a few weeks ago. Baadal’s video was released in the midst of PM Modi’s visit to the ISRO centre in Bengaluru to witness the anticipated landing of the Chandrayaan-2 mission’s lunar rover. His video went viral and very soon, the BBMP patched up the roads. His method of calling attention to the pathetic condition of the roads inspired people all the way in Mexico, where a similar stunt was staged.
Here in Mangaluru, Adlin’s father, Ajoy D’Silva, made the decision to carry out a similar campaign in the city. Ajoy is the co-founder of a civic group that was established in 2015. Since that time, D’Silva says that they have carried out several campaigns to highlight issues plaguing every-day-Mangalureans.
Speaking to Newskarnataka, Ajoy said, “We wanted to do this (video) in Mangaluru and thought that children should also be a part of this, as it can garner more attention.”
The video was shot near Kalpana Sweets along the Central Market Road in Mangaluru, on Saturday, September 21 night. “The idea to do a similar video in Mangaluru actually came from Arjun Mascarenhas, who is the co-founder of our organisation.”
When asked if any official from the city’s municipality had reached out to him after the video went viral, he said, “Yes, they got back to us and they said that the issue will be rectified. Linge Gowda, who is an executive engineer, had contacted me in this regard.”
Ajoy and his civic group are, however, just getting started. “We are planning to do this in other places as well. We are looking to focus our next campaign on highlighting issues dealing with building and zonal violations,” he added.
