Aditya Thackeray launches massive civic youth movement for city
Aditya Thackeray launches massive civic youth movement for city
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Shiv Sena front-man Uddhav Thackeray's son Aditya at a talk to launch youth movement 'The Dreams We Share' pic/Bipin Kokate |
Aditya, who bears a striking resemblance to his father, and described himself as 18 and u00be years old, "my birthday is on June 13 when I turn 19," he told this reporter, repeatedly reminding some on the dais not to address him as 'Adityaji' or 'Aditya saheb'.
"I am as old or younger than most people here," said the St Xavier's College Second Year Bachelor of Arts (SYBA) student. In fact, even though the Marathi manoos plank seemed to have slipped away from the Shiv Sena thanks to Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's (MNS) canny hijacking of the agenda, comments of: 'speak in Marathi' and 'Mumbai means Marathi Manoos' were heard from the audience as Aditya voiced his thoughts confidently about his vision for the city. Aditya also preferred not to term his voicing the aims and objectives as a speech, instead telling his young audience that this was an informal discussion, "gappe maroo ya" (chat informally).
Aditya said thoughts like youth in Mumbai could do something for civic issues like cleaning up the city, garbage segregation and traffic problems coalesced into action after he was recently caught in an unnecessary and wasteful 1.5 hour traffic snarl from Chowpatty to his home (Bandra).
Now, Aditya and Shaina plan to start with an inter-collegiate competition on June 9 where college students would have to write their vision for Mumbai in 100 words. They also said that a major tree planting drive (2 lakh saplings) is slated for July 13. Collective singing of national songs would be held on August 14 and an eco-friendly Ganpati competition is planned for September.
Shaina says, "We are targeting 50,000 youths to join up for 'The Dreams We Share', and seeing how fired up everybody is initially, we are sure all these dreams are going to translate into solid action."
Aditya adds, "This is not an initiation to a political career. I decided I needed to do something in the holidays. I thought it is better to be the solution rather than keep pointing out loopholes and preaching. After all, we are the youth, it is time we give ourselves the power to solve the problem."
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