Amir Khan in Warud
Nagpur/Warud: ‘He came, he saw, he conquered’ is an old saying. In Bollywood superstar Amir Khan’s case it should be changed to –
He came, he was seen, he conquered.
Yes, that is what happened when AK recently went to village ‘Wathoda’ in Warud taluka to do ‘shramadan’ in the cause of Water conservation or Jal Yukta Vihar, a project dear to CM, Devendra’s heart.
Aamir is promoting Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ project Jal Yukta Shivar, a water conservation endeavour.
When he met Mr Fadnavis in mid-February, three drought-hit talukas or sub-districts of the state were selected for taking up water conservation through public participation. The talukas were Warud in Amravati district in Vidarbha, Ambejogai in Beed district of Marathwada, and Koregaon in Satara district in western Maharashtra.
Aamir has instituted a Satyameva Jayate Water Cup for the best worker in water conservation work. His Satyamev Jayate Director Satyajit Bhatkal is working actively with Aamir on this.
“We were told that Aamir Khan would arrive in Wathoda at 6 a.m. Many people from Warud went there to see A.K. We were under the impression that he would be there with a big contingent of body guards, would symbolically pick up a few stones from the river bed, pose for some pictures and then leave” says Manda Yawalkar, Founder President of Mahila Vikas Manch of Warud which is active in many social endeavours.
“To our surprise, he effortlessly merged with all other workers and seriously picked up boulders and did cleansing work for three hours straight. He was bathed in sweat, but he did not seem to tire.
Looking at him, we felt guilty because many women had dressed up in their best sarees, even wearing loads of jewellery, so were not ready to get down to work themselves.
Seeing him contribute like that was really inspiring. He rose in our esteem tremendously after the mixed feelings he had evoked after Satyamev Jayate. Apart from being genuine, he is really handsome and youthful looking too!
It was obvious that with all that sweat, any traces of make up – if he had been wearing it – would have washed off. But his complexion glowed and he radiated charisma. We couldn’t help comparing him to the supposed ‘King Khan’ Shahrukh, who looks old and haggard even in his film promos on TV”.
Other women who were with Manda, like Anu Shah, also pointed out that he spoke very warmly to all local people and had no starry airs.
“He did not pause in his work to pose for photos though. But he allowed us to take as many photos as we wanted as he worked and we posed next to him!”
May be thanks to Aamir’s visit, people of Warud taluka are really fired up about conserving as much rain water as they can come this monsoon season. All major rivers, like the Chudamani flowing through Warud and minor rivulets too are being cleaned and dug up for effective water percolation which otherwise just floods and gushes off.
Warud is the area that grows the famous oranges which are known all over the world now as ‘Nagpur oranges’. These orange orchards require water though. This year’s drought and water scarcity has already resulted in many orange trees drying up and dying.
Hope the scene will be different next year!
Also, people of Warud are really confident that it is they who are going to win the “Water Cup” at the hands of Aamir.
…. Sunita Mudliyar ( Associate Editor )
