“For someone who has spent the majority of her adult years here in Chennai, it goes without saying that I feel quite close to this place. So when the unforeseen second wave hit us with an incomparable velocity, I was paralysed to see my city succumb to something this bad. A conversation with my friend about this led me to think about how I could pitch in for the situation.

Introspecting, I understood that a lot of people who were infected were finding it difficult to cook. Putting my love for cooking and this together, I posted a story on my Instagram that I can make extra food everyday and have it delivered to people who really need it. Soon after, my friend Deepthi joined me and she started a thread to offer food in and around ECR. Within no time, we were a strong community of 12 home cooks who were ready to make home cooked meals for covid infected families.

This was followed by our third main member Srinidhi who has come to be known as the CTO of our group. She set up a small medium where contacts of home cooks and other details were populated and those in need could make use of them. As the word spread around, more and more home cooks started joining us and also, the demand for home cooked food started to increase with the increasing number of cases.

But the most fulfilling thing about the whole process has been witnessing people come forward to help even in the most adverse situations. We have had people who were finding it difficult to meet expenses still find a small window to help in a way. Since most of our operations were conducted out of Instagram, we started a collaboration with ‘Trash Troopers’, an NGO working towards environmental causes where we would provide food to homeless and other marginalised community members.

This was made possible through a fundraiser which helped us raise money to fund these food deliveries throughout the city. The people we helped with food in turn join our family of home cooks and work on providing home cooked food to other families in their area.

Like the old saying goes, even when you think it can’t get any worse than this, there is always hope to be found. Most of us are juggling full time jobs and even on the days when it is really tough, we find the will to honour our commitments and that to me, is just phenomenal. This is the biggest uprising of human kind and I am glad to have played a role in this.”