Charity in the times of Corona
‘Vanga, coffee saptingla’ I looked blankly at Mariamma and glanced at her small tenement in the E block of the D J Halli block. Coffee at this hour would be great, but where was her kitchen?, ‘Venda Amma’, we managed to mutter and stood blankly next to her. She was not wearing her mask but we did not have the heart to ask her to go search for a mask. Her eyes stared blankly and our uneasy shuffling went unnoticed. I tried to divert her attention and asked her what is Ayya reading. Ayya, her husband of more than 80 years was reading a thick and wet Tamil translation of the Bible. Amma and ayya said nothing more but asked us to help them. Childless and alone, all that they had was the warmth of their neighbours and their survival was inexplicably linked to the well being of their neighbours.
But the neighbours were not having a gala of a time. They
were as desperate as Mariamma and her husband and waited patiently for the
volunteers of the Sama Foundation to make their rounds and enter details so
that they could avail of the emergency rations that was being provided to more
than 800 households of the E Block of D J Halli.
We stumbled across and came across Vinodamma, a 34 year old
lady with a severe heart condition who has not had much to eat since the deluge
that hit them on night of 10th September. Vinodamma had trouble
speaking to us and made an extra effort with every breath she took. Her house
was comparatively lower than the other houses and we could not help wondering
at what would have happened on that night. But Vinodamma was drying kadlekai,
retrieved from the flowing sewage that had swamped her house. Incredulously, we
asked her to repeat what she just said, ‘She was drying the flooded ration
so that she could eat them when dry’.
A young family asked us to take photos of their house and
also at the maximum water level reached that night, another family was trying
to find a space for their damaged refrigerator, a line of families who lived
just above the sewage drain and far below the other families requested us to
take photographs at their still flooded tenements, a refrigerator floating,
some clothes muddied.
Hindus, muslims, Christians – all living together in this
block of D J Halli were looking for succour and when they found our team
speaking to them, one could imagine their deep sense of humility and
self-respect in that all they needed was for some temporary support in order to
tide over the difficult times.
We were left stranded, much like all the household materials
of these families. Without words, without a sense of our bearing, with nothing
much other than a blank expression that for once was covered by the mask. For
once, we were thankful to the mask for hiding our emotions. But the mask cannot
hide what the eyes feel and soon our eyes turned as red as that of the
residents of this flooded block.
We had been working with the Sama Foundation on the corona
crisis relief work in DJ Halli ward and until the localized flood hit, were
occupied with checking the community members for co-morbidities and informing
them about being safe from contracting the disease.
The NGO is working with a large team of 40 volunteers who
fan out each day in the surrounding slums while filling up their questionnaire
and spreading the message of safety. They meticulously inform the households on
the need to wear masks and maintain basic precautions while living in congested
localities. The effort is to ensure that cases of the disease do not remain
unnoticed and are treated in time.
