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In #Covid19 times, heroes step up. What uplifting stories have you read recently? #WATWB

We are the world blogfest coronavirus

We are the World Blogfest (#WATWB) focuses on positive stories no matter where they’re found. It is all about spreading peace and humanity on social media.

My last post was about the Covid virus, and since this pandemic is a matter of concern for all of us, irrespective of where we live, I dedicate this edition to what we can do to help the most vulnerable sections of the populace affected by it. In India, where this virus is being fought but is growing apace despite a 21-day lockdown,  the most vulnerable people are leaving big cities with their familes on foot, hitching rides when they can.

1. To help them, heroes are coming together to gather support, and I share this article in the spirit of We are the World Blogfest, In darkness, be the light:

The worst-affected are daily wage earners like domestic help, security guards, rickshaw drivers, handcart pullers, and waste pickers.

With their work and mode of income disrupted, the coming weeks look bleak for them, as their families run out of supplies.

In these testing times, a few heroes have stepped up to extend a helping hand. Here are six initiatives in four cities, ensuring that the needy do not go to bed hungry.

2. The article  provides links to those who are helping out, and I’ll add Goonj to the list. If you’d like to help, please check out the links.

3. I’ve been also writing a bit about life in lockdown in India:

“Compassion, not judgement, I remind myself. Most of the panic shoppers or partygoers or determined selfie-takers are reacting from a place of fear.
In some ways, my frail eighty-year-old father clinging to a flowerpot in the face of a crisis is all of us.”

4. Today I came across this piece of news–a call by the administration for 50 doctors to combat the Covid 19 virus in Mumbai have had 250 private doctor volunteers withing one hour.

covid 19 Mumbai

5. And here’s a city-wise list of helpline numbers for senior citizens in India stuck without essentials during the lockdown.

 

What about you? What uplifting stories of humanity in action for Covid 19 have you witnessed or read of, lately? How has covid affected your life?

Would you like to post details of how people can donate in various parts of the world to help those who need it the most?

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This post was the latest installment of the monthly We Are the World Blogfest: I’d like to invite you to join, if you haven’t as yet, to post the last Friday of each month a snippet of positive news that shows our essential, beautiful humanity.

This month’s co-hosts,  Shilpa Garg, Sylvia McGrath,
Peter Nena, Eric Lahti, and Belinda Witzenhausen
welcome participants and encourage all to join in.

Here’s a sampler of this blogfest. Click here to know more. Sign up here and add your bit of cheer to the world on the next installment.


My debut literary crime novel,”You Beneath Your Skin,” published by the fab team at Simon and Schuster IN is making its way into the world.

It is available in India here.

Worldwide, here.

Reviews are appreciated–please get in touch if you’d like a review copy.

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Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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25 Comments

  • Jayanthy G says:

    Thank you so much for sharing some amazing articles Damayanti. It was a heartwarming read and I am glad I could do my bit to the organizations through you! All we need to do is that one random act of kindness. I’ve been thinking about my parents and my granny a lot during these days, mainly out of fear of the situation in India. Still, there’s a lot of good news coming around too and that’s keeping us all going.

  • It was so heartwarming to read about so many doctors answering the call to help. Here in my town, people are sewing masks and helping shut-ins any way they can. How I wish communities would come together this way all the time and not just when the need is dire. We can all learn from this and continue to make this world a better place long after the pandemic has ended.

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      Communities coming together in times of crisis is so heartwarming. I wish this were the case in all the places Covid is making itself felt.

  • So many people and countries are getting hit hard and it is the marginalized communities that are taking hits, it’s staggering to see the statistics. Thanks so much for sharing and for being a part of #WATWB. Stay safe and be well! 🙂

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      It is always the poor who pay dearly.

      Thank You for doing WATWB with me for all this time–didn’t realize it’s been 3 years!

  • We’ve been monitoring the situation in India watching the Delhi channel. Very sad!

  • Pam Lazos says:

    Hi Damyanti! The hourly workers are definitely the hardest hit and have always been. I hope this virus teaches us that we have to take care of the least of us if all of us are to thrive. There really is no us and them. There is only we. xo

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      There is only us and us–but the world will take a while yet to realise that. I’ve always seen interconnections, and so do many of us, but we can only hope we do not have to pay too steep a price for everyone to learn and accept this.

  • Unishta says:

    I personally believe that I have an Insurance policy from God. I’ve found that anytime I’ve needed it, someone has always pulled through and helped me out. It is amazing how crises bring out the best in us. I am not only housebound but unable to access news because I have a toddler to homeschool and a household to run with an arm still on the mend. My only source of the outside world is my doctor daughter who comes home with depressing stories from the hospital.
    Our building society has requested our watchmen to be on the premises and have given them an empty flat to stay in. They are also being fed. But I know this is NOT what these men would like to do voluntarily and am ever so grateful that they are being locked out of their homes while we are being locked in.

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      So grateful to healthcare professionals like your daughter who are the front line warriors in this war on the virus.

      Stay safe, and take care of you, Sunita.

  • Here’s what’s good here (Cornwall, UK) Appreciation for how jobs that were considered menial are actually fundamental to people’s lives, and thankfulness to those who do them. The care that people show, the actions of care that they are taking. Phoning people you haven’t made time for in a while to see how they are. Stopping the busyness. Finding the real connections that make you happy. Seeing that all across the world people are in the same crisis, and the same help is being offered in those communities.

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      Those are huge silver linings to this massive dark cloud. Stay safe, Lisa.

  • bikerchick57 says:

    In the midst of a pandemic, the love, concern and support that people are showing is incredible. It’s so good to see this, to know that kindness and compassion live loudly in this world. I hope these difficult times teach us something positive in the end, Damyanti. Hope you are doing well in isolation, finding time for yourself in stillness.

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      Mary, yes. Goodness in times of crisis is so reassuring. I’m ok so far–Singapore isn’t on lockdown yet, but cases have been rising steadily.

  • JT Twissel says:

    I live in an area noted for high tech invention and many of my neighbors are working on respirator technology and vaccines. Others are sewing masks.

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      That’s amazing. So heartwarming to hear of this coming together in times of crisis.

  • Susan Scott says:

    It’s so true Damyanti that the marginalised are the ones who suffer most in ways too many of us cannot begin to imagine. Sometimes the worst of times brings out the best in human nature, people reaching out, doing what they can to assist those in need, businesses coming to the party, governments stretching their capacity but providing stable leadership, communities doing what they do best, ie helping others. There are sooo many stories here in SA of individuals donating left right and centre, buying foodstuffs, the homeless given shelter …

    I hope your Papa rallies through this crisis – thank you for your post and co-hosting.

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      Thanks for all that you do as well, Susan. The crisis will make the kind, kinder, and the selfish, more self-centered.

  • Five times the doctors they needed – that’s great.
    Here, there are so many volunteers making masks for both medical personnel and regular people.

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      Volunteers making masks is such a lovely effort. It is happening in parts of Asia, like Malaysia, as well.

  • hilarymb says:

    Hi Damyanti – it is wonderful to see how many people are reaching out and helping as much as they can … we had a UK call for volunteers to help in the communities (pharmacies, surgeries, deliveries to the eldery etc) – and 500,000 (I think, though probably more by now) – then more from the retired, left the service medical staff to work in the hospitals etc I just think about the horrors and fears of those in refugee camps, or those in more dictatorial societies … and thank my stars I’m here. Take care and with lots of thoughts – Hilary

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      Take care, too Hilary. I share your concerns at the devastation wrought by the pandemic, and your relief at the show of goodness and courage in people. let’s hope we can put these uncertain times behind us soon.

  • Jacqui Murray says:

    I often think of those vulnerable people. It’s easy to not use their services but not realize that millions are doing the same and they can’t survive without their income. Thanks for spotlighting this.

    • Damyanti Biswas says:

      Jacqui, it is the poor the world over who would suffer the most. The crisis has underlined the unfairness of our social structures in a most brutal fashion–I don’t know if this will bring about change or we’ll all go on with the toxic setups after Covid is gone.