In the suburban train sector, Tambaram station tops the table in ticket sales, averaging ₹1 million per day. As I scrolled down ‘Tambaram memes’, a Facebook page, my eyes alighted upon other interesting and pithily-presented facts about Tambaram. From promoting up-and-coming youngsters to hosting social activities and cherishing the history of Tambaram, this meme page offers more than plain entertainment.
“Every day, there are many who go to bed hungry. There are people who don’t have a roof over their head. And, there are many issues that remain unaddressed. These factors served as a spur for us to start this Facebook page,” says Jai Prasath, an entrepreneur and one of the prime movers behnd the initiative. Prasath and four others are part of this initiative. It all began offline. The five-member team began by engaging in plantation of saplings, distribution of food packets and many other volunteering activities.
“Since all our activities were based in and around Tambaram, we started a Facebook handle in the name of ‘Tambaram memes’,” elaborates Ajay Kumar, one of the page admins and a social media analyst. In the initial days, members of the team, along with their college and neghbourhood friends, would visit orphanages in and around Tambaram regularly and make contributions out of their own pockets.
“We would entertain them through dance programmes. We would even teach them a few steps. During exam time, we would help them with their studies,” says Prasath.
The team has now grown; so has the page’s reach.
The team consists of five core members and over 20 volunteers. “People started sending requests to our inbox seeking that we promote our activities,” says Ajay.
Currently, the page promotes start-ups free of cost, helping them increase their reach.During the 2015 floods, the group kept their followers updated about the situation in Tambaram and surrounding areas.
“We coordinated with the rescue team of South zone to cater to the needy. We headed to the flood-ravaged localities and made sure food packets reached the needy,”says Surendran, an event manager who takes care of field work for the group.
On the major plans for the future, Surendran says, “We are planning a tree plantation drive that seeks to make every free space green. When someone comes across a space that needs to be helped in this manner, they have to just make a phone call.”
For more details, visit their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TambaramMemes.
