The next day, when the sky was aglow with the twinkling night lamps, they designed a few posters. The message was: None should sleep hungry. They asked the social media users to contact them if they find such people around them. So began a movement. Being the students of journalism, they know who to reach. They had coughed up the little savings they had. Instead of another packet of Maggi, they snapped up rice, flour, oil and salt.
They found a couple in the neighbouring slums. They were labourers but the lockdown left them jobless. The couple, Pappu and Anu, agreed to cook food in exchange for a menial payment. They wrapped ‘Rotis’ and ‘Aloo Bhaji’ in papers and went to roadside dwellings to feed those living there.
In the meantime, the social media movement had picked up pace. Their flat rang like a clocktower with the calls for help. Those calls were not a hurdle in their way, though. All their savings soon dried up, and they realized if they had some savings, other similar people, too, would have. The social media had played its part, and help came streaming.
The green horns fed over 300 families they had identified in their vicinity, besides helping Pappu and Anu to get more customers for their tiffin service. A member of the group Vishnukant Tiwari says helping the needy helped them survive. The lockdown was being extended, but it failed to quench the fire in their belly.
As twilight fell, those visor-clad boys went to slums and provided as much help as they could to the people there. The tasks they had were so extraordinary that the fright of corona turned into an ordinary affair. A member of the team Jalaj Mishra says God renders troubles, because He knows He has made His children strong enough to fight and pull though.
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