BENGALURU: Music has been a lifeline for many in these distressing times. And while Alok Babu R – better known by his stage name All Ok – has always embedded social messages in his songs, he knew the need of the hour was something greater in these times.
Which is why, since the past two weeks, the musician and his team of volunteers have been distributing fresh hot meals to migrant and daily wage workers. Since they began, they’ve distributed 20,000 meals in parts of South Bengaluru like Anjanapura and Subramanyapura.
“Team All Ok has about 150 of us and we’ve been a part of various social causes for a long time. We don’t promote it much on social media because that was never the intention. But this time, we wanted to talk about our initiative so that more people get influenced to help out,” says All Ok, a resident of South Bengaluru. For the past few days, he has been sharing photos on his Instagram of the food donation drive, but each of them conceals the faces of the people with smiley face emojis instead.
“There are two reasons for this, we want to protect their privacy, some people don’t like admitting they need help. Secondly, small gestures like this can have positive impact,” he says, shedding light on how the idea came to him.
The musician is known for songs like Don’t Worry and Happy. Recently, he shared a video of health workers grooving to the latter in a Covid ward. “It’s moving to see something like that and it inspired me to do better. If a song could help bring a smile on someone’s face, something like a hot meal might help 10 times more,” he says. The team of 150 volunteers have all pooled in money and aim to keep the distribution drive going till the last of those funds run out.
While the food is being prepared by cooks the team has hired, distribution is taken care of separately. Personally involved with the distribution himself, it was only recently that All Ok took a step back from being on the ground. “My wife is expecting our first baby so for her safety, I thought it’s best to stay indoors. But that doesn’t mean this little effort of ours will stop. My friend Naveen will help execute this and continue to distribute 750-1,000 meals a day,” says the musician.