This is probably the largest amount of tragedy that we’ve seen firsthand, Bhumi Pednekar recalls the scary initial months of the second wave of the pandemic. That time, was however a turning point in the actor’s life. With her own group of COVID volunteers, she has reached out to hundreds of people, helping them with the resources that they required during the pandemic. In a conversation with Author and Senior Journalist Kaveree Bamzai, as part of The New Indian Express’ COVID Think Tank, she recalled these events. The pre-recorded session aired on June 14.
A few months ago, the 31-year-old and her mother were both down with COVID. “I had no idea how to arrange drugs and plasma. So, I put out a message on a few WhatsApp groups because that was the advice I got from the hospital,” she says. In a couple of hours, Bhumi was flooded with donors. “That was when I realised that I could use my reach to help people. But I was very unwell when all of this happened” she said. Soon after that, the second wave hit and Bhumi knew that this was her chance to give back to society. She formed a WhatsApp group to attend to these requests. “In an hour, we had 70 people. The volunteers told me that they can’t utilise their time better than this,” she said. Today, they have volunteers across the globe. “We do everything from arranging ICU beds to even milk for babies,” she said.
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