PALAKKAD: The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others, Mahatma Gandhi once said. One person who has put those words into practice is Visakh Gangadharan, an assistant professor with the mechanical engineering department at the Malabar College of Engineering and Technology, Desamangalam. A resident of Kulappully near Shoranur, the 31-year-old finds time after online sessions to sanitise houses where Covid patients are quarantined. Amid the second wave of the dreaded disease, he has so far sanitised 90 houses, he says.
“During the first wave of the pandemic, a number of youth forums and clubs had volunteered to do such activities. But this time, though the number of patients has increased, there was hardly anyone to look after many families forced to live in isolation. So I decided to help sanitise such houses,” Visakh says.
While he used to take the chemicals and water required for cleaning from his house initially, his service has come to be valued enough that now the fire and rescue department provides him with bleaching powder and other materials, he says. “There were many houses where no one was able to cook as the entire family had tested positive. And our village, Kanayam, didn’t have many food delivery platforms either. Therefore, I supplied food packets and drinking water to those families.”
T Krishnanunni of Kulappully is one of the beneficiaries. “In our house, my mother, wife, children and I were all infected with Covid. It took us 17 days to recover completely. Visakh arrived and sanitised the whole house free of cost. His act instilled confidence within my family, and also my neighbours and friends who were unsure of visiting our house even after we had recovered. Society requires such people,” he says.
Visakh takes up sanitation work after his virtual teaching sessions, which usually last around four hours a day. “Now municipal councillors, workers and others contact me directly for help and I oblige,” he says. When he started out, he struggled to find the appropriate ratio of bleaching powder and water though he had undergone a brief training stint with the trauma care collective and the fire and rescue services much before the Covid outbreak.
“The skin of my hands would peel off when the concentration exceeds the limit. Gradually, I learnt how to use it optimally. The one great relief is that neither I nor my family members have tested positive as we all use masks. I use the same pair of dresses, boots and gloves while going out for sanitising. And I enter my house only after bathing and washing these clothes, which has helped keep the coronavirus at bay,” he reasons. Visakh’s mother, Sarojini, is a retired KSRTC employee while wife Sreelakshmi is a manager with the State Bank of India. They have a two-year-old son, Vaibhav.