CHENNAI: Ever since Suresh (54) and his family tested COVID-19 positive, the names of the two small stores they own in Mylapore, were flashed in the media all over the city. This gave them sleepless nights for the most part of their quarantine, wondering whether they would be able to get good business again.
On Wednesday, when Suresh opened his shop after he and his family recovered from the infection, they were in for a pleasant surprise. Customers, old and new, poured in to wish him luck and enquired about his health.
“So many shopkeepers had tested positive in the city. As I was among the first, our shop’s name was on television channels. I was upset because all our customers are from this area. They already knew that we tested positive and were careful. So, what is the point in revealing the store’s name to the whole world,” asks Suresh.
He, his wife Kalarani (50) and children Pranav (26) and Priya (27) all tested positive, thanks to their regular trips to the Koyambedu market. The family stays in a 200-square-foot house above their shop.
However, his anger over the insensitivity of the media has given way to warmth showered by his customers. He is grateful to this gesture and attributes it to the goodwill he has earned over 35 years of running the shop, and for the 20 years his father did before him.
“There is an 80-year-old woman, one of our oldest customers, who came to meet us today. As she spoke, she started to cry saying she had been offering prayers for our recovery. There are so many who came to me and my wife and said we could ask them for any help if needed. Some of them were people who to whom we had hardly spoken to,” Suresh said.
As a thanks-giving gesture, Suresh offered the day’s customers vegetables at the lowest price they could get in the city. “My wife and I threw in some extra vegetables and gave it to them at the lowest possible price in the city,” he said.
Ask the neighbours what they thought of the family, the first thing that comes to their mind is their love for dogs.“Suresh recently brought in an injured puppy from Koyambedu and nursed her back to good health. She is five months now and is called ‘Dori’ (because of her squint). She is the darling of the neighbours. Suresh believes that it is also because he has helped these animals that he and his family are now fine,” a neighbour, who did not want to be named, said.
Kalarani feeds at least five dogs in the neighbourhood, one of whom went chasing the ambulance which took the family to the hospital. “Their family has given groceries to many people, not knowing whether they would pay them back. It is now our turn to do something for them,” he said.