By Sana Ahmed, TwoCircles.net
Karnataka: From stories of stockpiling and panic buying to giving this pandemic a communal twist; we’ve been through all. When strong warnings against hate speech are sounded in the Middle East against Indian expats amid the Tablighi Jamaat controversy, and various other political hullaballoo surrounding the coronavirus outbreaks in India, what comes as a breather are stories of humanity, love and affection irrespective of caste, class or religion.
Two brothers from Kolar region of Karnataka – Tajammul Pasha and Muzammil Pasha – sold off a piece of their property to feed people who weren’t dying of the virus, but of hunger. The brothers deal in real estate and a small scale banana trade.
“We have seen poverty and now that we have enough we thought of helping those who are in need,” said one of the brothers.
Both of them have families to look after – Tajammul is the father of five while Muzammil has two sons. They narrated that the property got them a sum of 25 lakhs which by the strong support of their family in this act of kindness, they used in helping the needy.
Both of them are currently delivering groceries to people who have lost their jobs, or are sole bread earners of their families and can’t go to work due to the lockdown. Their daily routine is marked by making hampers and rations kits and then using their private vehicles to transport the deliveries to everyone – from those begging for alms on the streets to those who are suffering financial instability or resources crunch.
“We are also supplying necessities to the people living at railway stations as they don’t have shelter over their heads,” says one of the brothers when asked about their door to door delivery. Though the brothers have exhausted the sum they had had gathered from selling off their property, yet they continue to serve cooked food to the needy.
“When the lockdown was announced I got a call from a friend about 45 migrant workers from Andhra who were stuck in Hoskote,” recalls Sameer. Sameer Asad from Hoskote is a social worker, heading the Khuddam Ul Hind. When the lockdown was announced, Sameer came forward along with his friends to help migrant workers and laborer, initially managing to bring them to Hoskote using the Emergency bus services.
“I took help of the local police and arranged jeeps to help them reach the borders of Andhra Pradesh,” narrates Sameer. Since then, he has been involved in distributing groceries and essentials to those in need. He said that some laborers were also stranded at Tirmalshetahalli Cross, an industrial area where around 100 migrant workers from UP and Bihar were suffering from hunger as they hadn’t gotten their salaries. Sameer and his friends reached out to them with ration kits and also made sure they were paid their salaries by their employers.
So far, they have covered areas like Hoskote, Sulibele, Tamarshanahalli, Bodanaosahalli, Padryanoura and Lakshmisagar distributing more than 600 ration kits in total. As Ramzan has approached, Sameer has new plans, “During Ramadan we will make new kits that will comprise of dates, lentils, chickpea flour and other essentials.”
Sameer and his group of friends had started this initiative without any monetary support, relying solely on their own pockets and soon people started to contribute seeing their hard work towards the destitute.
At a time when a particular community is being boycotted and socially isolated in the north, these are classic examples of the Indian spirit of inclusiveness being practiced in the south. Many like the Pasha brothers and Sameer have proven that when social distancing is a norm they have not let the fire of compassion burning in their hearts die hence reflecting that pandemics may affect individuals and societies in more than one ways, but compassion helps in dealing with all of these in such difficult times.