We Rise by Lifting Others, by Olivia Mondal, Project Associate

By Olivia Mondal, Kolkata

This story revolves around two of my neighbors. One is a doctor, a young man. He lives with his grandmother who is really old, around 80. He lost his parents last year, to an accident. Ever since then, we’ve seen that he really looks after his grandmother, she is the only family he has left. The other neighbor is a young boy, a college student who couldn’t make it back home to his village and lives alone.

Everything was fine and normal, and days were going by. Then things got serious and the lockdown began, the death rate started increasing. People around our neighborhood started becoming fussy around the doctor. We were worried not only about him, but about his grandmother. Slowly people started losing their minds. There were threats written on the wall of his house. What is really sad is that we live right next to a police station. The doctor went and spoke to the policemen, but this didn’t help. Doctors are considered to be essential providers. It really got scary, after a point.

Then the young student stood up and offered his help. He told the young man that he was willing to move in with his grandmother and stay with her, and offered his own place to the doctor so that he could stay there in isolation.

Ever since then, this young man has been looking after the grandmother like she is his own. He does everything for her. And the doctor is mostly staying by his hospital, to avoid returning to the neighborhood.

For me, so much of my attention was towards the doctors and primary caregivers who are putting their lives on the line and doing their duty. But this small gesture of kindness really touched me a lot and made me question who we really are and what we really want to be.

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Olivia was a member of our amazing team of Project Associates based in Kolkata, who assisted with all aspects of the online storytelling workshops, from recruitment to facilitation.