Arushi Chaddha s father was dying. The oxygen supply of the hospital, like in hospitals across Delhi, was running on fumes. Most people knew, or knew of someone who had died. Her only hope was the kindness of strangers.
On April 23, at 11.30 am, Chaddha posted on Instagram: Lungs damaged. Oxygen level dropped to 70. Hospital is refusing to keep my father for more than a couple of hours due to the shortage of medical oxygen. My father will die.
In a short while, her DM was inundated with messages offering leads. One such message was from Suhail Shetty, who took down Chaddha s details and made several phone calls to his friends and relatives to get an oxygen concentrator. On April 25, at 2.20 am, he managed to arrange one.
New Delhi, India – Concerned by a spike in COVID-19 infections in her gated community in Noida, a city bordering New Delhi, Plaksha Aggarwal wanted to help and started cooking for the patients and their families.
After catering to a few families within her apartment complex earlier this month, she started getting calls from around the city.
“I could not refuse people. They wouldn’t be calling unless they needed help. Some orders were for people who had just lost family members,” she told Al Jazeera.
Within a week, Aggarwal was preparing 120 meals a day.
“While in home isolation, having someone take care of your food or your kids’ meals because you cannot cook for them is just one less thing to stress about,” she says.