Mumbai’s Ganesha festival had over a thousand cops working ceaselessly amidst the deafening noise and crowd. As a mark of gratitude and to provide relief, three Cuffe Parade (South Bombay) citizens – Ruzbeh Raja – an IT Professional , Zyros Zend – owner of Peekay Wines and Yazdani Bakery, and Haresh Hathiramani – owner of the famous Khazana boutique at Colaba Causeway – came together and organised an ‘Ear Plug Donation Drive’ to help reduce the intrusive sound-pollution for our policemen. Bright orange colored, industry-level ear plugs were bought by pooling in the donations received after the word spread on social media about this drive. The earplugs are made from polyurethane foam, accounting for noise reduction by about 28db, which doesn’t completely cut off sound/hearing.

The Ear Plug Campaign, currently in its second year, was started by Zyros and Ruzbeh, who managed to provide 400 earplugs last year, to our policemen on VP Road, DB Marg, Gamdevi, Colaba and Cuffe Parade police stations. This year, the campaign brought in greater success where the three samaritans managed to distribute over 1,000 ear-plugs prior to the Visarjan day, with help from the donations received. The relief was seen on the faces of our policemen, as they smiled from ear(plug) to ear(plug), at the thought of their citizens looking out for them!