Let us address a certain privilege here, before talking about Nikhat Khan's story. For many, social distancing and quarantine may seem like a great way to stay at home, eat healthy homecooked food and catch up on a few shows on Netflix. This is an obvious option for folks whose refrigerators and cabinets are full. But at the same time, there are many who found themselves in a fix all of a sudden after their hostels and paying guest accommodations decided to close down all of a sudden.
If you fall in the latter section and happen to be in Noida, the probability of you starving is very less, thanks to people like Nikhat. This 27-year-old, two days ago, had put up a post on social media, asking people to contact her in case they're in need of food or groceries. "I have seen several posts where people living alone in PGs and Flats are facing issues to get food due to the lockdown. You can DM me and I will arrange home-cooked food for you and you can collect it from my society gate," reads her post, which soon went viral.
She decided that she would help every single person who needed it. "The lockdown was announced all of a sudden and not a lot of people were prepared to handle the next 21 days well. A lot of them could not get enough groceries and many of their accommodations were closed down. I could see this happen in front of me and knew that I had to do something about it," says Nikhat. She packed 10 boxes of lunch on the first day and six on the second. "I am not cooking anything fancy, but something as basic as rice and dal. I can only assure that you won't go hungry," she says.
Apart from this, Nikhat also cooks lunch, tea and evening snacks for all the security guards in her housing society. "All the security guards here are doing a great job in ensuring that the people are safe. They carry lunch boxes and place it at a particular point from where people can pick it up. They also conduct temperature check-ups for everyone who enters the society," she says. "But these days, their work has become really hectic and a lot of them work for 36 hours straight. They're not able to go to their houses. So, I've told all of them to not worry and that I will cook their meals every day," she says.
A management professional at a hospital in Delhi, Nikhat is working from home most days. "I love to cook and rice, dal and atta are things that you usually buy in bulk usually. So, until now I've been able to manage things," she says. At the same time, Nikhat urges more people to take up similar initiatives. "A lot of you can do this in your own areas, making sure that you follow social distancing. After I put up my post, I got connected to someone named Roman Chauhan, who also started a similar initiative in Jaipur. I'd like to see more of these," she signs off.
