Kolkata:
As the coronavirus-triggered lockdown is under way, a humble Maruti 800 car chugs along the warren of forlorn streets of South Kolkata with a sticker pasted on its windshield–‘Emergency Medicine Supply’.
It is not a typical medicine supply vehicle but a private car belonging to Anupam Sen, an alumnus of a city school who, along with some other schoolmates, is busy delivering medicines and grocery to their former teachers, some in their late 70s and 80s.
For their first phase of delivery, the 40-member ex- students’ group of South Point School — ‘Pointers Who Care’ — had a list of 15 former teachers, which included 89-year- old Dipali Sinha Roy, a widow living alone near Charu Market whose both daughters are settled in Europe.
“I was running out of medicines, and to my surprise, I got a call from them on March 24. They took the list of my monthly requirement of medicines and groceries,” Roy, who taught Bengali language at the school, told PTI. She is hypertensive and suffers from heart ailment.
“On March 28 morning, they came and delivered everything. At a time when my children are far away and cannot come to me in such a crisis, they are my saviours,” says Roy, her weak voice overflowing with gratitude.
Roy said they not only deliver medicines but take her to doctors, and are just a call away.
For former English teacher Anindita Sen of Jodhpur Park and her husband the lockdown brought worries galore.
Anindita has high sugar levels and blood pressure, and her husband suffers from Parkinson’s disease. They cannot survive without their daily doze of medicine.
“Usually, the local medical shop delivers medicines to our home. But this time they even stopped taking our phone calls. My former students came to our rescue,” she said.
“Shotti gurudakshina. Anek ashirvad korlam. Paramatma tomader mangol korun (It’s an act of Guru Dakshina, God bless them),” says Keka Mukherjee, the daughter of Praneeta Banerjee, another former teacher at the school.
As pestilence rampaged through many countries, the ‘Pointers Who Care’ anticipated trouble at home, and when it finally came, they hit the ground running.
The group, the brainchild of Nivedita Roy Burman, another alumna of the school who now teaches Geography at Shri Shikshayatan College, was formed 13 years ago initially to lend emotional support to their retired teachers living a lonely life away from their children, many of whom had settled abroad.
Starting off with a handful of former schoolmates, the group, which got registered under the Societies Act in 2009, now has 40 volunteers taking care of 228 former teachers.
They have divided the teachers by their localities and each volunteer is in-charge of 8-10 of them.
So, when the coronavirus struck, the members with a robust network of doctors and pharmacists got active on their WhatsApp group.
“Life-saving medicines and groceries were the priority. We divided our work. Some volunteers were only engaged in calling up the teachers and taking the list. Others consolidated the list and procured the items.
“I was in charge of delivery with Rajib Sarkar and Nivedita Roy Burman,” the Pointer’s group secretary Anupam Sarkar said, explaining their modus operandi.
After the formation of the group in 2007, they got in touch with other alumni, many of whom are well-settled doctors in and around Kolkata, and built up a strong network.
“We found that we have specialists in almost all departments. And they were also happy to get in touch with their ex-teachers and happy to offer free treatment in an act of paying back.”
In 2014, their former teacher Prithwish Kar had a medical emergency and needed hospitalisation for six weeks.
The group came to his rescue, pooling in Rs 8 lakh from school alumni.
“His medical bill was settled and what was left was enough to take care of his daily medicine requirements,” Sen said, wistfully remembering his former teacher, who died in 2017.
The group meets twice a year with their former teachers and inquires about their health and well-being.
Now, this benevolence is not limited to the former teachers of South Point School.
These good samaritans are lending a helping hand to others in need.
They recently reached out to a wheelchair-bound relative of a Michigan University professor in distress.
“Dr Mausumi Banerjee, who is a professor of biostatistics, got to know about our initiative through Facebook and requested for help for her wheelchair-bound relative. We were there at their doorsteps,” said Sen.
He and four other volunteers of the organisation were honoured by the West Bengal government.
Growing every day, the group hopes their volunteer base will become stronger in the coming days.
“We don’t have many volunteers in north Kolkata and hopefully we will get some dedicated people who are touched by the initiative,” Sen added, before bidding a goodbye and rushing to one of the former teachers in his autumn years with a bagful of supplies.
