Mohammad Akram / Hyderabad

Friends Salim are Rizwan were like any normal human being, working hard and managing their lives well till the Covid -19 virus struck the world and turned it upside down.

During the lockdown period, once evening Rizwan, a journalist who works for a local newspaper was passing through a deserted road  when he saw many ill-clad people looking emaciated and apparently hungry at a city roundabout.

It shocked Rizwan and shared his experience with his friend Salim, who ran an eatery in Bengaluru and had shifted his base to Hyderabad in the lockdown.

Salim and Rizwan listening to the story of a man they fed

Both of them decided to do something about helping such people who were rendered without resources to earn and eat to keep their body and soul together.

Both of them prepared food and went out to distribute the same to the needy on the roadside.

Their work of distribution begins in the night as most of the destitute get together at some fixed places in the city at night only.

Rizwan says that he saw people sleeping hungry, some looking at him with hope. Besides, he found there are many people living in their homes and yet are going hungry as the lockdown had rendered them jobless.

“I told about it to Salim, who agreed to chip in even though he too last lost his hotel business in the lockdown and was financially in a difficult situation,” Rizwan said.

Salim and Rizwan speaking to a man living on roadside

“Every day I and my partner Salim cook food with our own hands and pack it. Initially, he used to prepare 50 packets, but after seeing more people who need help he is now preparing 400 packets,” Rizwan said.

When the whole world used to sleep, everyone used to take restful sleep in homes, at that time both of us used to go out on the road with food packets in the dark and give it to the needy.

Salim, whose hotel has been close for months, says he has seen poverty very closely and therefore understands the pain of having to sleep empty stomach. “We spend our own money; my business has been closed for months and yet probably due to God’s blessings we are feeding 400-500 people every day. “