With no work, tent house owner offering snacks to people
LUCKNOW: At a time when most people are following lockdown guidelines and staying home amid Covid-19 pandemic, there are many who are doing their bit to keep others, especially kids, in good spirit in these tough times.
Purshottam Kumar, a small time tent house owner at Katra Bazaar in Kakori—a town area around 20 km from the state capital, is one such man.
Ever since his business activity came to a grinding halt last month, the thought of serving some snacks to locals crossed his mind. Without wasting time, he shared his idea with his assistant. And then the duo decided to serve samosas to local kids and others free of cost.
“When we first distributed snacks to locals two days after the lockdown began, some of them joked whether they will get samosas again and I replied in the affirmative ,” said Kumar.
“People thought that I was not serious about my commitment. The next day, when snacks were ready there was no one to serve to. Again we had to look for people to distribute snacks,” he added.
However, that was the last time Kumar had to look for people to distribute snacks. The word spread in the area about his free snacks soon and now people from adjoining areas also turn up for for free snacks in evenings. Kumar, however, took care that while serving people, lockdown guideline of social distancing was not violated.
Anshu Vajpayee, a local resident, also contributes in running the unique ‘snack camp’. “As more people started arriving for snacks, I decided to contribute. Without violating any norms of social distancing, we are distributing snacks,” said Anshu.
For a change, Kumar also sometimes prepares jalebis in the morning. “One day, we decided to distribute jalebis (Indian sweet) in the morning and told people about our plan,” he said.
“On days, when jalebis are distributed, we do not distribute snacks in the evening,” said Anshu.
“As more people started arriving, it became difficult to maintain social distancing. When cops objected to it, we decided to curtail the activity to four days a week,” said Anshu.
They plan to continue free distribution of snacks till the lockdown continues. Now, locals jokingly say that the lockdown must continue.