Tashi Wangdu is a Tibetan who was born and raised in Bylakuppe, Karnataka. The 46-year-old been living in Bengaluru since 2010 and runs a guest house called The Himalayan Inn in Bengaluru.
Since the pandemic started and the Indian government announced the major lockdown, Tashi kept hearing accounts of a few Tibetans stranded in Bengaluru with nowhere to go. So he put out a post on social media inviting them to his guest house. He's been giving free lodging to students and for those who can afford it, he asks for a nominal fee since they have to stay for quite a long while. "Right now, I have 14 guests --12 Tibetans, one Nepali from Darjeeling and one Indonesian," he says.
He also kept hearing on the news that daily wage labourers were suffering a lot and struck a chord with him. "I understand that they are the ones who suffer the most during such times. I did a bit of research and found that there are several NGOs volunteering in the major slums. So I went looking for the smaller, isolated slum areas. I managed to get some masks and food for them and I plan to do this with my staff everyday."
Yesterday, Tashi and his team were able to feed about a 100 people. They also educated people on the importance of wearing masks and other hygiene practices. Since the lockdown has left his employees with much lesser work to do, they have been helping him make these disposable masks at the inn.
Tashi says that so far, they haven't faced any restrictions by the police while venturing out and delivering food to these areas. "But we do take necessary precaution. We wear gloves and masks and keep enough distance from everyone," he says