THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Eid al Adha is a festival of sacrifice and showing kindness to the poor.
Najiya Ershad, a home chef from Sreekariyam, has already taken the lead and like last year, will be distributing food packets to people living on the streets on the day of the festival. A home chef for more than five years now, Najiya has been winning the hearts of food lovers in the city with her signature range of biryanis.
“Food is an integral part of any festival. Eid al Adha is one such festival. After offering prayers in the mosque, the animal sacrificing ritual is performed where a goat or lamb is slaughtered and then equally distributed among the family, friends and the poor. However, due to the pandemic threat, the celebrations have been cut down. So, we thought of distributing food to the needy people,” says Najiya.
Usually many people come forward to distribute the food in orphanages during the festival. However, people on the streets are often left out. Najiya says, “ Since I own a food business, I have been distributing the extra food packets left to the people living on the streets every day. There are many homeless people in bus stands and railway stations who are unable to get even a meal and go hungry.”
Sheeba is another home chef who has been making homely delights for the city residents under her label ‘La Fleur’. Like Najiya, Sheeba has also decided to observe this year’s festival by extending a helping hand to the less privileged.
“Besides the traditional sacrifice and offering of prayers at the mosque, the true spirit of the festival lies in sharing and caring for the less privileged. Also, the most important part of the festival is to share food with the hungry. Like every year, I will cook and distribute food to the poor people on the festival day,” says Sheeba, who has also been providing financial help to those in need. Recently, she had contributed a huge amount from her food business for the treatment of a cancer patient in Alappuzha.
Even some city-based organisations are planning to bring cheer to the homeless people this bakrid. Mahesh Parameswaran, founder of Thiruvananthapuram-based NGO, Hope On Pain Ends (HOPE) says, “ We are planning to distribute food packets to more than 100 homeless people in various parts of the city.” The NGO will hand over a street vending cart to Geetha, a homeless woman on Wednesday.