AT the GMC gates various good samaritan groups are distributing free food packets, to make life easier for stressed out patients, families and others

By Tara Narayan

IT’s worth visiting the Goa Medical College & hospital these curfew days at about 1pm. Quite a few good Samaritans are giving away food packets of vegetable pulao/biryani or chappati-sabzi or jeera rice-maa-ki-dal plus juice tetrapak, bottled water, banana. The last menu mentioned is courtesy the Goa Sikh Youth folk whose timeless gurdwara langar service has honed their skills in doing social seva.
Others distributing chapatti-sabzi packets are the Rotary Club of Panaji (sponsored by Dempo Charities); then there are the Ramnagar Sanskruti Mandal boys with their vegetable pulao packets (sponsored by Manoj Gawdi), they do about 700 packets for lunch. Free? Of course, all food packets being distributed are for free and freely given to those to come collect them.
In fact, see the line quickly queuing up for the Goa Sikh Youth langar packets…regardless of whether you have a Covid-19 patient in one of the GMC covid wards or not! You want food, come and get it from 1pm onwards till everything is over. This is mostly a lunch courtesy good Samaritans while the curfew/lockdown lasts in Goa this side of Panaji.
The Jammat-E-(Islami Hindi Goa ) in alliance with Sufi Khana Caterer is also distributing free meal packets of vegetable biryani (“on Id Mubarak day we distributed chicken biryani and on Sundays too” said Armaan Shaikh here), they do dinner packets too but the demand is not so much and just four or five people may turn up for the dinner packets. Lunch time they distribute about 150 vegetable biryani packets, “Sometimes we do vegetable pulao or kichada…I think we’re the first who started distributing food packed even before the lockdown started, and this is our 20th day…”
The Rotary Club of Panaji too distributes about 350 food packets made up of chappati-rice-vegetable sabzi-dal-pickle packets picklebegetadalvegetable-chappati and obliged Nestor Sequeira who was assisted by Sandeep Prabhu and Suraj Bode, “since May 4 we have also been delivering food packets to homes, about 20 packets or so to whoever is in home quarantine because of covid…” These home drops are much appreciated by seniors in situations where they can neither cook at home nor go out anywhere to collect rations or anything.
IT’S quite heartwarming to see such a windfall of food come lunchtime at the gates of the GMC these days! Most of the food packet stocks the half-a-dozen good Samaritans bring get over quickly in 15 to 20 minutes or even faster than that. The Goa Sikh Youth group turned up a little later that day after 1pm and they get quite a queue for they also offer fruit juice tetrapack, a fruit and water bottle too, apart from the menu of the day which on Tuesday, May25 was “jeera rice and maa-ki-dal.”
Goa Sikh Youth’s Rajeev Malhotra, volunteering his time for this curfew/lockdown seva, says they do about 150 food packets every day for lunch and about 1,000 of them are distributed outside the GMC, the rest are picked up by some groups who need them, “yesterday someone told us to do maa-ki-dal so here we are today making it…at least five kg of Amul butter and pure ghee goes into dal, also jeera rice. It’s very healthy food!”
That’s debatable but those further down the economic ladder can surely afford to have a little bit of pure ghee in their lives, be it in the form of mercifully free food packets to tide them over a low period in life. But this is also to say it’s not just covid patients’ attendants or relatives in the GMC wards who come for the bounty of free food packets. Just about anybody can turn up and collect, sometimes two or three packets if they’re picking up for somebody else too. Anybody in need of food may come forward, after all isn’t food the easiest thing to give away?
We are a society which likes to eat and eat sumptuously regardless of whether it’s good, bad or ugly for body beautiful! Eat less, give more…who said that? I’m not sure, Mother Theresa may be, may be not. I just like the sound of it. Eat less, give more to those who can’t even put a meal on their table for the day thanks to covid-19 and lockdown loss of jobs and other tragedies in the wake of the pandemic.
The food packets being distributed are all of good quality. The various food items sounded so good that I got tempted to taking home with me two of the Goa Sikh Youth food packets, to check out the maa-ki-dal loaded with butter and ghee. Earlier at a place closed to the GMC (just before Rudralaya ashram) in the beautiful garden compound of Arturo and Judeland d’Souza’s home, I’d seen the Sikh volunteers in action: Cooking the maa-ki-dal in a huge patila. Inside what used to be playschool quarters once some volunteers were helping do up the aluminium foil food packets neatly, before packing them in boxes to be driven down to the GMC.
The articulate Rajeev Malhotra (who’s on Big Daddy casino staff roll-call was down with covid-19 himself earlier but is fine now) showed me around the adjoining “go-down” where all the donated rations are stocked. He appreciates the fact that Arturo d’Souza has generously let them use his compound premises to cook the langar food free of cost just out of appreciation for the voluntary good work they’re doing to supply covid patients’ families with food packets. This way they’re close to the GMC and movement of food packets is swift and efficient.
To a query about donations Rajeev Malhotra said, “We take donations of rations only, no money!” People have heard about what they are doing and they get daily donations of rice, dal, ghee, butter, vegetables, fruit come in from a number of good Samaritans – in fact, they don’t worry about from where the rations will come, “people call up and ask what we need and we tell them…whatever comes we make up our menu for the day accordingly.”
While watching the langar operation in the making a Mr d’Costa came by to drop off huge bunches of bananas…so it goes. There’s no dearth of donations when the cause is good!

GOA SIKH YOUTH IN ACTION….

The Goa Sikh Youth is barely five years old in Goa and most of the youth volunteer their free services both at the Betim gurudwar as also whenever there is a need for volunteers….here they’re busy cooking up the menu for the day at premises loaned to them for the duration of the covid lockdown/curfew.