Unlike-minded but United

Five of a family who returned from a holiday in Goa died of Covid 19 on consecutive days and were buried in series right beside each other. The only surviving members of the family were two little children. During the second Covid 19 wave, I still remember the cries of a wife on our helpline call, begging for an oxygen cylinder to save her husband whose saturation was falling by the minute. By the time our helpline volunteer found a cylinder, her young husband succumbed in the ambulance to the killer virus. Many Covid patients breathed their last in ambulances, autos, and cars, while their loved ones were desperately trying to get them an ICU bed in the hospital. Never before in our lifetime had we witnessed scenes of entire families being wiped off the face of the earth. Never before had we seen people abandoning their loved ones when they needed them the most, both when they were alive and struggling under the deadly Covid asphyxiation or when they entered the throes of death and breathed their last.

I vividly remember a call received by one of the volunteers at about 2 am during the second wave from a daughter pleading with us to save her old and abandoned father who was Covid positive and had survived only on coffee for three days. His son living on the ground floor of the same building did not reach out to help him due to the fear of contagion. It took a team of fearless and committed young Mercy Mission volunteers who rushed and rescued the old man, who luckily survived the ordeal. A migrant worker originally from Andhra Pradesh, working in Mangalore lost his job. Hungry and homeless, he decided to walk back to Andhra. En route, he collapsed in Bangalore on the pavement as he was completely dehydrated and famished. On a routine ride, two of the Mercy Mission warriors found him almost unconscious. The migrant laborer was in such a pathetic condition that he was disoriented, unable to form even the simplest of sentences, and unable to express anything about himself. He gulped down five liters of water at a time and wolfed up a few Mac burgers offered to him. Once he regained his senses and was stable enough to speak, he was taken to the government support center which helped him find his way back home.

While on the one side there was mayhem like never seen before, a stark anomaly was that there were a few devils amidst us who did not bat an eye to make moolah out of the helpless public. The coronavirus disease 2019 popularly abbreviated as COVID-19 belongs to a virus family that is characterized by severe acute respiratory disorder, which includes major respiratory illnesses such as aggressive pneumonia leading to complete lung failure. Nations across the globe were continuously trying to challenge the pandemic by conducting relentless research and performing test runs. No viable solution was to evolve in the immediate future. The answer seemed to lie in the advent of a vaccine, which in the best-case scenario was a good twelve to eighteen months away. While the hunt for an antibiotic to eradicate the Covid 19 was under research, many doctors prescribed certain existing antibiotics and drugs which were recognized early as a possible therapeutic option for Covid-19. Quick to capitalize on the demand, those heartless ones who literally worship the Rupees and dimes, jumped into action hoarding these life-saving drugs despite the dire condition and death looming large in every corner. Eventually, these Medicines were black marketed at a whopping 10 to 15 times the maximum retail price. Some of these hoarders flew expensive routes across the country, especially between metros and larger cities, delivering small parcels of these medicines to those who could afford them, while the poor succumbed helplessly. When the second wave of Covid 19 hit India, a new variant was evident as the symptoms changed and the infected patients developed a drastic drop in oxygen levels in the blood. Hundreds and thousands of people died at home, in ambulances, in cars, and in hospitals. There was an acute shortage of medical-grade oxygen. The devils in human form who trade anything for money got into action once again. Medical oxygen cylinders that were otherwise purchased for about INR 8000, and refilled with oxygen for about INR 300, were now black marketed for over INR 50,000 a cylinder, and the refilling cost catapulted to almost INR 2000. Then came those who had to transport dead bodies that had succumbed to the virus. Many hearse and ambulance services across the country showed how opportunistic and heartless they really were. Charging anywhere between INR 10000 to an obnoxious INR 40000 for one dead body delivery to the cremation grounds or the burial grounds, proved to the world, how low-slung a group of human beings can really stoop down.

While on one side when we all have clear reasons for our frustration about these few who took advantage of their fellow beings in distress, there was another set of souls who were God-sent angels in human form. I vividly remember our colleagues from the Mercy Angels team, relentlessly rushing to pick Covid positive dead bodies and the abandoned Covid dead bodies on a 24x7 basis. This league of extraordinary ensured that every single of the two thousand four hundred bodies they transported was given dignified last rites and that too without charging a penny. The highlight was that the Mercy Angels team ensured that the last journey of these cases was done in accordance with the faith they proclaimed, demonstrating the unity in diversity etched in the ethos of our great nation.

Hundreds of such stories emerged while the world prayed for relief from the deadly virus that brought mankind to its knees. After contracting the virus, patients who developed a critical condition could not get a hospital bed in time, the elderly patients were deemed hopeless and left to die and many of the dead were abandoned by their loved ones. In a matter of two years, Covid 19 snatched away the lives of millions across the world. To be precise the recorded death count of Covid 19 stands at a staggering 6,343,924 across the world and a 524,890 across India alone. Mind you this is just the recorded number.

A few seemingly insane, unreasonable, and daring people from the young, the old, the women, the men, and the children stood shoulder to shoulder fighting the pandemic. While the greatest of superpowers of the world grappled with this unseen little virus, it proved how vulnerable we really are. The untrained local warriors took the battle head-on and did what was expected of responsible citizens. In many ways, the pandemic was a reality check on every individual’s inner being as well. The virus presented to us an unbeatable test of our core values, our integrity, and an awakening of what life, family, and society really meant to us. Let me dwell a bit more about where it all started and how the wild spirit of these few insane and unreasonable people sparked off a globally applauded movement called “Mercy Mission”.

With the sudden announcement of the nationwide Covid 19 lockdown on 24th March 2020, India was immersed in distress of an unprecedented magnitude. While fear, confusion, and uncertainty prevailed, many were rendered jobless overnight. The medical fraternity and the frontline experienced panic at the brink of a pandemic that had taken the world in its grip without a warning. The middle class was hit hard and the daily wagers had nowhere to seek their sustenance. Workers at construction sites, shops, restaurants, street hawkers, auto drivers, taxi drivers, vegetable vendors, and many such people went jobless overnight. Bangalore’s huge population of migrant laborers was stuck without food and shelter on the streets. With no means of returning to their hometown, they were devastated and hopeless. The government was doing its best but the situation was too overwhelming. NGOs and good Samaritans across the state had to rise and fight a crisis that was in no way looking to subside for the next few months if not years.

Right before the lockdown in India, on the eve of the 21st of March 2020, a handful of NGOs in Bangalore came together for the first time to deliberate the threat Covid 19 posed to our masses. An intense brainstorming session revealed the possible catastrophe that was fast approaching India. The assessment revealed that we were in no way prepared to handle a pandemic of such a large magnitude. It required quick thinking and even quicker decision-making to organize a network of good Samaritans who could work together and take on the aggressively spreading virus in a battle mode to save and sustain as many human lives as possible. In a matter of a few days, many NGOs joined the bandwagon and that was the birth of Mercy Mission, a movement that grew rapidly to become a coalition of 20+ NGOs committed to large-scale disaster management.

This coming together was a historic event as something of this size of operations had never happened before. Support went out to lakhs of families with the much-required necessities like medical emergency supplies, helplines, community kitchens, ration distribution, hospital support, oxygen support, last rites for the dead, and many such services were established in a matter of hours and days. Some staggering achievements of the Mercy Mission team at Bangalore are the distribution of 83700 Dry Ration Kits, establishing 33 Community Kitchens cooking 15,00,000 meals, serving over 2,85,000 Meals to migrants returning in 107 Shramik trains, setting up oxygen banks, and handling 2400+ COVID-19 dead bodies with dignified burial and cremation.

The immense impact of Mercy Mission was felt across Karnataka and every individual who volunteered was applauded by the world. The second unique feature was the participation of a large number of youngsters who had no prior experience in social work, hailing from middle-class and upper-middle-class families consisting of a good number of students and professionals. Some of these youngsters were otherwise struggling in their own lives, average performers in their academics, last benchers, and predominantly deemed as a not very successful lot. Many of them emerged as unsung heroes working relentlessly to make a difference to mankind when it mattered the most.

It is almost a few months now that the third wave has passed and people have returned to a normal mode of life. Business as usual is the buzzword across the world and stock markets are predominantly bullish and at times bearish. Amidst all this, Covid 19 seems almost like a long time ago event that happened to the once-upon-a-time world. It just proves that the human memory, left on its own is very short-lived and life moves on with the routine kicking in. A few questions linger in my mind; are we insensitive to the stories of fear, uncertainty, pain, and death? Were the inspiring narratives of fearlessness, courage, compassion, and empathy not worth sharing with the generations to come? My intent for penning this short write-up is in pursuit of writing a complete book that can help the masses recall the pandemic and how a few unsung, imperfect people came together and made a significant impact on the lives of thousands. A book that would help people understand how to prepare for a probable pandemic and the power of smaller teams uniting to create a ripple effect of noble humanitarian work that has the power to change the course of the present and the future.

Reflecting on both the good and the not-so-good sides of what we witnessed during the pandemic, I conclude with this one sentence that summarizes my thoughts and is dedicated to every warrior who made Mercy Mission a magnanimous effort to save humanity;

“The world is in need of human beings who are professional, not professional beings who are inhuman”

~Syed Habeeb

President -Mercy Mission

Bangalore | INDIA

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