Lunch for 24,000, snacks for 41,000!

History does not remember those who lived for themselves but those who went the extra mile to stretch out a helping hand to those in dire straits. Tanveer Ahmed was one such individual who performed the last rites of numerous Covid victimsgiving them the traditional farewell they deserved. So was R Satyanarayana Mysore, Head of the Department and Consultant of Pulmonology and Lung Transplant at Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru. When no one was able to decipher the pandemic, It was Dr Satyanarayana Mysore who shared information on Covid, the protocol to be adopted,and treatment tips which proved to be invaluable to citizens. Matching them in his dedication and sellessness was M.K. Noushad, president of the All India Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre with its Bengaluru Central Committee extending help to 2,16,875 needy by supplying ration kits, cooked lunch, snacks and drinking water.

M.K. Noushad bears testament to the fact that being of service to society does not require deep pockets so much as empathy. The president of the All India Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (AIKMCC), and General Secretary of the Bengaluru Central Committee, Noushad has played a key role in mitigating the suffering of those affected by Covid-19.

During the pandemic, the Bengaluru Central Committee extended muchneeded help to 2,16,875 beneficiaries. The volunteers supplied 36,500 ration kits to the needy, cooked lunch for 24,000 people, snacks for 41,520 people and brought drinking water to 42,300.

Noushad, who came to Bengaluru in 1985, worked for six months in his uncle’s provision store on Magadi Road. Two years later, in 1987, he opened a stationery shop and also began his social work. He gathered a group of likeminded businessmen in and around Cotton pet, where his store was located and collect anywhere between 50 paisa and Rs 2 from each of them every month, for his social work. “We managed to collect Rs 6 lakh in three years,” recalls Noushad.

In 1989, he helped his first accident victim, as he returned to Bengaluru from Kerala and found a man who had been injured in a road accident in Maddur. The family lived in Vyalikaval, Bengaluru. “At the start, I wasn’t happy with the way they responded to me. But I was very happy when one of them called me on the phone to express his gratitude. Later, he invited me and my friends to his son’s wedding,” Noushad says.

During the pandemic, he risked his life to shift a patient from a private hospital in Bengaluru all the way to Kerala for treatment. “I decided to risk it and ask the hospital to discharge the patient, even though he was critically ill. Our team shifted him successfully,” he said.

The patient’s name is Sameer Ameerudeen, a pilot working for a private airline. He says he wouldn’t be alive if Noushad and his team hadn’t shifted him to Kerala. “I have to appreciate them for getting me there in four hours, when the journey usually takes anywhere between seven and eight hours,” he says.

Noushad also runs a palliative home care unit, which is maintained by the Shihab Thangal Centre for Humanity. Volunteers, accompanied by a doctor, visit various areas to provide patients with palliative treatments at home. This includes primary care for terminally-ill patients, assessment and promotion of high levels of wellness and the supply of medicines to those who need them. So far, 367 critically ill patients in Bengaluru have availed palliative home care. “We provide the service to critically ill patients from all religions, castes and communities,” Noushad says.

The volunteers of palliative home care unit visit Jayanagar, JP Nagar and Electronics City on Mondays, Neelasandra on Tuesdays, Tannery Road on Wednesdays, Yeshwantpur and Banashankari on Thursdays, Gori Palya and Majestic on Fridays, emergency home care on Saturdays and sterilization and office work on Sundays.