Vibha
Vibha’s pursuit of spreading joy of gratitude and work as a facilitator for holistic processes can be summarized as ‘from being to doing’.
In early March when she was all set to retreat in the mountains, the country came in grip of the pandemic. Visualising the impending emotional health challenges, Vibha decided to step up and offer online sessions to help people manage anxiety surfacing due to the Covid crisis.
“In the week when the lockdown was announced, I offered online sessions that focussed on mindfulness, meditation and gratitude practices to calm anxiety. Closer home, my father was also getting anxious due to the lockdown and related uncertainty. Since he was in another city, I groomed my 13 years’ young niece to practice the activities with him. The elderly living in my neighbourhood were also experiencing anxiety and restlessness, so I started teaching them simple practices over phone. The response from all these interventions validated the need and aptness of the practices shared and motivated me to cater to many more.”
Vibha, with a team of five volunteers, started imparting anxiety management skills during Covid times.
Vibha shares, “This pandemic-induced anxiety isn’t going to simply disappear anytime soon. It is cutting across age-groups and socio-economic groups. People are not used to living in uncertainty for so long and if prolonged it can lead to stress related health challenges. The larger purpose of her project was to help people manage their anxiety, so as to not burden the exhausted health system with stress related ailments.”
While the project was in its first month of planning and training, Vibha developed fever, breathlessness and throat pain. “On 21st April, when I stepped out to buy a thermometer, I saw about 40 women and children sitting on the streets, hungry and distressed. My heart ached to witness the plight of these migrant workers, who were overwhelmed by hunger, dread of the virus and loss of livelihood due to the lockdown. Their famished looks disturbed me so much that I could not swallow my meals. My anguish was aggravated to see migrants walking back to their villages on highways and it made me question why the nearby Expo Mart or F1 stadium were not opened to make arrangements for their shelter and food.”
Vibha tested negative for Covid, but had to stay in a quarantine centre till her report came. On 28th April, on her way back home after getting discharged, she saw that the number of people sitting on the streets had almost doubled. When enquired, she was shocked to discover that while a van was coming with food, it was only distributing to those who had voter ID cards and were living in a specific area of the locality. At that moment, Vibha thought of arranging food for the affected people.
“It was gratitude and compassion at work. Gratitude towards my friends who helped when I was having Covid like symptoms and was struggling to get myself tested, find a place to quarantine and compassion for the fellow humans who were starving. This was an opportunity to give back and be part of the solution in my small way. When I go through challenging times and am still able to reach out to those in need, I feel good about myself. When I give leftover food to someone, that is not an act of compassion. But when I share what is there for my consumption and from limited resources, I practice compassion. All through, I was clear that I was not ‘giving’ but ‘sharing’.”
She shares how a food stall vendor who had lost his livelihood, agreed to cook daily for 150 people, a driver who was jobless and his elderly mother who volunteered enthusiastically to manage distribution of meals. It was quite a task to make people stand in a queue, wear masks and maintain appropriate distance. She fondly calls these volunteers – Covid Angels. That was the beginning of her work in the community for over a month. “In the initial couple of weeks, I personally went for distribution as well, however, when my father fell ill in mid-May, and I had to go to Hyderabad, I took the help of two friends to continue the distribution work. When driving 1500 kms. from Greater Noida to Hyderabad, I filled my car with snacks, water bottles and fruits, which I shared with people walking home on the highways.
In June, Vibha changed the mode of sharing. “I feel that the process of distributing cooked meals is not always dignified. With the lockdown lifted partially, I decided to provide other things according to their specific needs, and not just cooked meals. This was the time when friends and family members also poured in their contributions and need-based cash transfers reached in time to a couple whose new-born twins were battling their life in the ICU, a group of girls who needed to buy sanitary napkins, a labourer who needed to reach his village for his mother’s cremation, a young girl who had lost her job and was supporting her family of six and a street vendor who needed money to pay school fees of his children.”
“I am grateful to the universe that large- hearted volunteers showed up and together we could provide relief to some people in times of distress. In retrospect, I think I was helping myself, as when my focus shifted to actions for others, my health improved. It is in sharing that I receive!”
Vibha emphasises the importance of building resilience by integrating emotional well-being to the education system. “Simple things like learning to be mindful while performing routine activities like breathing, eating, drinking water, walking, grounding in senses etc , builds capability to pause before reacting when destructive emotions arise. A window of even a minute of pause is enough to centre oneself and then respond. Emotional bypassing or being in denial of negative emotions does not help. It is important to acknowledge and accept if one is going through negative emotions otherwise pent up emotions can do more damage to self and cause violence too. Regular practice of gratitude helps to focus on what is happening well and if one can start focussing on simple things like sunlight, trees, water or breath as blessings, this shift in focus brings a sense of abundance and that often provides motivation to act from a space of compassion.”
Interviewed by Nida Ansari and Pooja Dhingra
Edited by Shayontoni Ghosh
Illustrated by Anushree Agarwal