It is not an alien notion in India for parents to convince their children to pursue an art form only as a hobby and take up a “real job” instead. But, youngsters today have found a way around it.

Shriya Gupta started Nation’s Rock Beat, when she was just 17.
Shriya Gupta started Nation’s Rock Beat, when she was just 17.

Shriya Gupta, a 20-year-old automobile engineering aspirant started an organisation called Nation’s Rock Beat, when she was just 17. She says it is for people who are pursuing other things professionally but want to keep their creative streak alive. What started as an attempt to stay in touch with her passion, grew to be much more, with a team of 116 people and with about 17 different creative paths such as music, dance, oration, art, etc.

In their latest project, the team combined street art and street music to make Bowenpally a cleaner place. The space that was a dump yard is now a parking space, with beautiful paintings on the wall, and also serves as a wall of kindness, where people can leave things they don’t want, for the lesser fortunate to pick up.

On how the idea came up, Shriya says, “On my way to school, there used to be heaps of stinking garbage. When I started NRB, some of us wanted to get involved in street art, so I thought why not combine the two? We talked to Bowenpally Cantonment Board member J.M.R. Reddy, and he gave us the required permissions and got in touch with GHMC to help us clean out the garbage.”

Shriya continues, “We installed a large bin there, but people still threw their garbage outside. In fact, when we told them that someone will be provided to take the garbage from their homes, they weren’t willing to pay even `50!”

But, they did not let this dampen their sense of responsibility. “We needed to be heard if we want to make a change, so we took to street music. After painting, we conducted the drive over two days, and and the jam session that was planned for just 10 minutes went on for an hour and a half.”

Now, the space is being monitored by them. Shockingly though, Shriya says, “People were so used to treating the place badly that once, when we were on a short break, we saw a man urinating right in front of us!”

There’s a huge difference in how the place looks now. But what about the people who threw their garbage there? “We are trying to assign GHMC rickshaws to each of the complainants after taking down their names,” she says.