Its not what we gather,its what we scatter….that tells the kind of lives we’ve lived.
"He could not have been more than 25,and it was despicable to have witnessed it." Due to the commotion caused by COVID-19, the overstretched staff at the provisional store had forgotten to remove one expired bread packet, and as luck would have it I had picked it up. My wife promptly checked the package and not only made me aware it was expired but fungi had started building up on all the sides. Cursing myself, I took the packet to be thrown into trash. That is when Raju, a young man of 25, emerged from apparently nowhere inquiring if I was going to throw the bread away and why?
I emphatically stated that it was expired and fungi has started building up on it. He said, he is anyway picking up trash and requested me to hand it over to him. I had handed it over, but I had a feeling I needed to stay back, I immediately regretted it. He was gleefully opening the packet and started to devour the bread, not even examining if there was fungi. “Yuck”, after a slice he took the pack and started walking. I stopped him asked him why is he doing this, and demanded he throw the packet into trash. His statement still resounds in my ears.
He said “anna (brother), I have a wife and a boy of 2 who have not eaten for the last 3 days. This may be bad, but its better than dying out of hunger. I could come out but there are many others who have not been able to come out, their husbands were caught by cops for loitering in lockdown”. I immediately went to my apartment and got him some provisions that will help. He thanked me profusely, when I saw him walk back I felt a sense of awakening inside.
What I realised in the conversation was that he was neither an irresponsible person or lazy. He along with his family had come to this city form outskirts for construction labour and got stuck here due to the lockdown. No ration card, no money and no way to earn. They are simply stuck!
The state is doing its part, but these are people who have fallen through cracks.
After being completely shaken, I did a cursory analysis to find that over 10 crore (100 million) people in India are not covered by the public distribution system, and started to wonder how are they surviving. Is there anything I could do to help the situation constructively?
That is when my wife came to me and talked to me about a group of Army Veterans – Armour of Care. They have setup a help desk and scouts who keep looking for people who need help and provide them with provisions that can help the needy survive. As less as 500 rs/- helps a family survive.
I listened to all this and said, can I get them to help Raju? She said YES and immediately got me in touch with their help desk. They did their due diligence pretty quickly and within a day help was provided to all those people stuck in the hamlet Raju was living. They all thanked them profusely.
More than gratitude, what I saw on their faces was the relief due to the dissipation of fear that they have some hope. Just the feeling that someone cared, had made them relieved.
As I was recollecting and telling this to my daughter, she had asked me “Appa why did you act the way you did? You had helped Raju, wasnt that enough?” to this I said “It was not an act, it just felt natural to help”.
That is when I realized myself that the more people who come to know about this, the more they will be able to help the helpless. Because I firmly believe, in the most difficult of times “it is not the way we act but the nurturing nature to help” that emanates itself.
By donating, by spreading the word, just like small drops of rainfall creates the life giving river. Each drop will nourish a life!
Here is how you can contribute,click the link below. Spread the word and your love at this time of need. Heal our Country!
Post written by Prasanna Varadhan,Member,Holistic Education and Adaptive Learning(HEAL) Foundation
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