As the clock strikes 12, deserted roads in lockdown-bound Bengaluru come to life briefly. Men, women and children queue up for food and even water.
Since the lockdown came into effect on April 27 during the second wave, the food queues have many embarrassed faces – the elderly tailor loathe to line up for free food, and the young salesgirl struggling to ask for the extra packet for the child back home, reports Petlee Peter.
B Malar, 42 | Autorickshaw driver
When Malar asks for six lunch packets, she jokingly assures volunteers at Akshaya Patra outside City Market that she isn’t eating it all herself. Back at her home in Timber Yard Layout, Sanjaynagar, are her five young children and ailing husband, Gopi. It was in 2016 that she took to driving the auto when Gopi became bedridden. “I haven’t been able to go out to work much in the lockdown and what little savings we have are vanishing,” she says.
Surjitt Sahani
