Mumbai: The Free Press Journal’s Angels Of Mumbai took its brightly illustrated children’s books, inspired by the lives and work of real-life changemakers featured in the Angels of Mumbai series, to a young audience. An interactive book-reading session was conducted with around 20 enthusiastic students at DBM India’s Deonar centre, where the students listened with rapt attention as author Pooja Patel read the stories to them. The stories, written with the intention of inspiring young minds towards changemaking, left the curious teenagers in awe.
Author of the books Pooja Patel reads the stories to the curious the students |
Also in attendance were Dharmesh Barai of Environment Life Foundation and Aabid Surti of Drop Dead Foundation, on whom the stories are based, who interacted with the students. Barai spoke about his extensive work cleaning Maharashtra’s mangroves for 300 consecutive Sundays, which deeply impressed the students. He also spoke about his Plastic-Free Sahyadris initiative, under which he cleans forts located in the Sahyadri hills across the state.
Aabid Surti of Drop Dead Foundation interacting with the students |
“These kids are the future of our country, and I’m glad I got to share my story with the young ones. It was lovely talking to them, and I’m happy to say that our future is in good hands. They not only paid attention to what I was saying but also had queries, which shows they are keen to understand problems and be a part of the solution,” shared Barai.
Dharmesh Barai of Environment Life Foundation shared his journey of cleaning mangroves |
Ninety-one-year-old Surti, who started his one-man NGO to conserve water by fixing leaking taps in people’s homes for free, told the students that one does not need a huge army of volunteers or a big not-for-profit organisation to bring change in society. One small act can create a massive impact.
“I can’t express how excited I was during and after the session, as the audience was not only listening to me attentively but also actively interacting and asking questions,” shared the nonagenarian.
Paramjeet Singh, founder of DBM India, who hosted the session for The Free Press Journal, shared, “It’s a great opportunity that these two personalities, who are doing such meaningful work in society, were here and shared their life experiences. It is very inspiring, and I’m glad that the students had the opportunity to learn so much from them. Thank you to The Free Press Journal for giving the students this opportunity to become well-intentioned citizens.”
The staff members of DBM India (from left)and Paramjeet Singh, founder of the NGO (second from right) alongside the Angels and the author posing with books |
Now in its seventh year, the Angels of Mumbai series has published over 200 features highlighting the work undertaken by changemakers in the city. By converting these stories into children’s books, the aim is to nurture values of empathy, responsibility, and imagination among young readers, while helping them connect with everyday heroes.
Aabid Surti of Drop Dead Foundation and Dharmesh Barai of Environment Life Foundation |
