Distribution of grocery, clothes and other essentials to 150 families at Bharu Ramkrishnapur, near Baruipur, WB :

As scheduled, Uddyom kept its date with Bharu Ramakrishnapur, near Baruipur, on 24th May 2020. Although arranged earlier, it became well nigh impossible to stick to this schedule, as a once-in-a-lifetime Super Cyclone hit our part of the country on 20th evening, devastating everything in its wake. Uprooted trees and electric poles cut off majority of the roads of the affected areas, and since our destination this time was an even far flung village, discussions were afoot to reschedule the event to a more saner time in the future. However, word reached us on the eve of the D-Day, that an offending and obstinate electric pole, the last one to block our intended route, has been tamed, and the event was a go.

The scenes on the route to the village was reminiscent of the huge power of mother nature. It was around 45 minutes further away than Hariharpur, our last venue, and involved navigating the last couple of kilometres on a very narrow strip of concrete road. With great difficulty, our three chhota hathis reached the site of distribution. The scenes all around were pretty stark, as was expected by us after two months of lockdown and three days after the mighty Amphan wreaked havoc. This time, considering the super cyclone, we had brought in old clothes as well, and we are thankful to many golden-hearted residents of a couple of housing complexes for bringing a smile of getting the unexpected from the villagers.

The distribution of items took us a couple of hours. We had the help of a local unit, Chaaran, who took care of the local logistics. Nine of our volunteers who attended were grateful for the presence of Rajat Chaudhuri, author of The Butterfly Effect, among other publications, and this is what he had to say on the day’s events. Go to Facebook page