Not every plumber has always been a plumber. And some get into the business not for money, but truly idealistic reasons. Aabid Surti grew up in a slum in India, later he wrote award-winning novels, poems, comics and screenplays. He is 81 years old and invented India’s first comic book superhero. Now he goes around with a plumber to fix faucets. In an interview he explains why:
Q: Mr. Surti, where does your reverence for water come from?
AABID SURTI: I grew up on the streets, so you have to fight for water. My mother stood in long queues for hours every day – for a liter of water.
Q:How did you get into plumbing?
AABID SURTI: I was visiting friends and saw a faucet leaking. I said: “Please, you have to have this repaired!” Half a year later the tap was still dripping.
Q: Did that annoy you?
AABID SURTI: I read in an article that if a drop leaks out of a faucet every second, 1000 liters of water can end up down the drain by the end of the month. So I hired a plumber and went to see all my friends with him. That’s how it all started, in 2007 I founded my Drop Dead Foundation.
Q:How many apartments have you visited since then?
AABID SURTI: In the first year there were 1660 apartments and 450 repaired taps. We estimate that to date we have saved ten million liters of water from the drain.
Q: More than twelve million people live in Mumbai. Do you want to visit them all?
AABID SURTI: No, the most important part of my job is to educate people. You have to hire plumbers yourself. But it depends on whether the poor people – who suffer most from water scarcity – can afford it. My experience is: If you go through the world with a pure heart, people will help you.
Q: How do you finance your work?
AABID SURTI: The first plumber I hired said, “If you don’t charge people for money, how am I supposed to charge you for money?” When I paid for the first 5,000 educational posters we put up in homes wanted, the printer said, “You’re doing such a wonderful job, I can’t ask you any money for it.”
To this day I have never asked anyone for a penny in return. When you start something good, God becomes your fundraiser.
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