The name is a joke, of sorts. Or maybe it isn’t. Because Bittu Tabahi did set out to destroy something. Just not what the name implies.

He wanted to destroy the pollution that had swallowed the Ajnar River whole.

What He Found

Surendra Singh Choudhry, aka Bittu Tabahi, is a 20-year-old college student from Biaora in Rajgarh district, Madhya Pradesh, India, pursuing his BSc degree. The Ajnar River runs through his hometown, past a temple he knew well. And the river was in a state that most people had simply stopped seeing.

Plastic bags. Discarded bottles. Religious offerings left to decompose in the water. Algae spreading where the water should have flowed. The water was barely visible beneath the garbage in several stretches.

He was disheartened. And then, instead of staying disheartened, he made a decision.

Republic Day, 2026

On January 26, 2026, while others celebrated Republic Day, Bittu stepped into the river and began cleaning it. He started with almost nothing. No gloves. No boots.

Just himself, the river, and the garbage that had accumulated there for years while everyone waited for someone else to deal with it.

Unlike large-scale government clean-up drives that use machinery, Tabahi’s campaign was almost entirely manual. Armed with basic tools and often working without protective gear, Tabahi entered the polluted river to remove plastic bags, bottles, and algae by hand.

He filmed it. He posted it. And the videos started travelling.

What the River Cost Him

This is the part of the story that sits with you.

The polluted water caused skin infections and irritation on his hands and feet. However, he continued working on the river for months.

No funding. No support from local authorities. Skin infections from the very water he was trying to clean. And criticism – from locals who accused him of doing it for social media attention, of performing kindness rather than practising it.

He kept going anyway. His persistence produced visible results, with before-and-after images shared online showing dramatic improvements in several sections of the Ajnar River.

The river that had been invisible beneath its own garbage started to look like a river again.

Who Noticed

The videos reached people far beyond Biaora.

Mahindra shared Bittu’s story on social media and called him his Monday Motivation. Anand Mahindra, industrialist, one of the most prominent businessmen in India, saw a young BSc student standing in a polluted river without gloves and called him an inspiration to the country.

And then a Dutch CEO reached out with something more concrete: a job offer. “Come work for us,” the message said, a water management company in the Netherlands, recognising in Bittu’s work an instinct for environmental stewardship that most professionals spend years trying to cultivate.

Tabahi’s work has sparked a larger conversation about civic responsibility and local authorities’ roles. Many social media users questioned why an individual had to take on work that local authorities are expected to handle.

It’s a fair question. And it doesn’t have a comfortable answer.

The Larger Thing

There is something in Bittu Tabahi’s story that goes beyond inspiration, something slightly uncomfortable, actually. Because the Ajnar River didn’t become a dumping ground overnight. It got there gradually, one discarded bottle at a time, while everyone who walked past decided it wasn’t their problem.

Bittu didn’t have more resources than anyone else. He didn’t have protective gear, or funding, or official support. He had a river he cared about and the willingness to get into it, literally, and start pulling things out.

His aim has been to destroy pollution and restore a river that had been neglected for years.

Tabahi. Destruction. The name fits after all – just not the way anyone expected.

One young man, a river, and months of quiet work that nobody asked him to do. The Ajnar is cleaner for it. And somewhere in the Netherlands, a CEO looked at those videos and thought: that person understands something important.

He does. He just learned it standing in polluted water without any gloves.

Missed previous Kindness Reports? Read them here: The Kindness Report

Seen something kind around you? Tell us about it — we’d love to share it in a future Kindness Report.

Sources:
Hindustan Times | NDTV | Indian Express | Times of India | Instagram

The post The Kindness Report #26: Bittu Tabahi Is Destroying Pollution in India’s Forgotten River appeared first on Aspiring Blog.

For nearly two months, thousands of young people from across India have been sitting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, in the July heat, asking for something simple: accountability. The protests, led by a youth movement called the Cockroach Janta Party, were about a lot of things. Exam paper leaks. A generation that felt ignored. A system that kept failing the people it was supposed to serve.

The Kindness Report doesn’t take political sides. But it does notice what happens between human beings when a crowd of tired, hungry, far-from-home young people sits down on a pavement and refuses to leave.

What happened in Delhi this past week was remarkable. And most of it had nothing to do with politics.

Nobody Asked Them to Send Food

Hundreds of food delivery orders began pouring in at the protest site at Jantar Mantar, placed by anonymous supporters from across the country who could not attend but wanted to show up in the only way they could.

It started with one viral video. A delivery partner arrived at the site and announced: “Someone named Anuj Rawat from Mumbai, Maharashtra, ordered the food and asked us to distribute it to anyone hungry at Jantar Mantar. The payment has already been made online.”

That was the spark. What followed was a flood.

Countless orders arrived – chai and samosas, vada pav, veg thalis, biryani, pizzas. No name, no details – just “Jantar Mantar” as the address. The food was arranged like a buffet, and anyone who wanted could take what they liked.

So much food arrived that the movement’s own social media account eventually had to post a message asking people to pause: “We have enough food for today! Please do not send any more food, as we want to ensure nothing goes to waste.”

Someone wrote in response: “This is not the power of social media. This is the power of love.”

The Gurdwaras That Never Closed

After Monday’s police crackdown, gurdwaras across the city threw open their doors to supporters – balconies, verandahs, guest rooms, all of it. Bangla Sahib, Rakab Ganj Sahib, Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk, all opened to protesters looking for a meal, shelter, and first aid.

The sewadars (volunteers who serve at gurdwaras) had a long night after the march. When the injured started arriving at around 4 pm, all sewadars, including devotees, left everything and helped. Every injured person received first aid. When the kitchen tried to take food to the protest site and was stopped by police, they simply opened the doors wider and let everyone come to them. There was food for everybody.

When asked about it, one sewadar said something that deserves to be quoted in full: “These are our children.”

Mosques joined in too. The Man Singh Road mosque ensured 24×7 water supply for all. “We do not discriminate on the basis of religion, caste or gender. All are welcome,” said its custodian.

The Strangers Who Showed Up in Person

Volunteers, vendors, and community groups turned Jantar Mantar into a massive open kitchen – distributing free meals, fruits, water, and even golgappas to students who had been sitting in the heat since morning.

One college student distributing water bottles put it simply: “It is very hot, and many students have been here since morning. If giving someone a bottle of water helps them stay here a little longer, that is enough for me.”

A man showed up with coconuts. Another arrived with boxes of pizza. An auto driver gave free rides to exhausted protesters at 3 in the morning. Office-goers stopped on their way to work. Elderly citizens and children stood side by side serving meals. People who disagreed with each other on everything else agreed on this: these young people deserved to eat.

What Happened at Jantar Mantar Went Deeper Than Food

A B.Com graduate named Manish Kumar from Karnal arrived with just Rs 400 in his pocket, boarded a bus to Kashmere Gate, and walked 7 kilometres to the site. He said he had made friends for life – from MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Assam. Doctors, engineers, bank employees. “I have had conversations over chai with people I would not have met otherwise.”

That’s the quiet thing that happens when strangers sit together long enough and share food. The protest becomes secondary. The human connection becomes primary.

And Today,

On Saturday, July 25 (today), India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced his resignation, bowing to mounting pressure after tens of thousands of students and supporters took to the streets demanding accountability and sweeping reforms to the examination system.

The students won. Not all of their demands – the movement’s founder was clear that more remains to be done. But this was something. A generation that had been told it didn’t matter, that it was invisible, that its frustrations were noise – that generation sat down in the July heat, and the country sat down with it.

The Larger Thing

The Kindness Report exists to tell stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things for strangers. This week, India gave us hundreds of those stories at once.

Anonymous donors placing food orders from cities they’d never visit. Sewadars sweeping marble floors at midnight so exhausted teenagers had somewhere clean to sleep. A mosque keeper filling water bottles at 3 am. A college student with one thing to give, a bottle of water, giving it.

None of them were making a political statement. They were just looking at human beings who were tired and hungry and far from home, and doing what felt obvious.

Feed them. Give them chai. Tell them: you are our children, and you are welcome here.

Missed previous Kindness Reports? Read them here: The Kindness Report

Seen something kind around you? Tell us about it — we’d love to share it in a future Kindness Report.

Sources:
ThePrint — Gurdwaras open doors to CJP supporters | ThePrint — Anonymous food donors | Telangana Today — Jantar Mantar community kitchen | CNN — Education Minister resigns | Hindustan Times | India Today

The post The Kindness Report #20: How the CJP Protest Became a Story of Humanity appeared first on Aspiring Blog.