PATHANAMTHITTA: Covid now figures in the list of most disliked words. But for Shyam S, the words hold importance; so much that he even named his autorickshaw ‘Covid-19.’ For, it was because of the pandemic that the 34-year-old youth from Karikkad in Alappuzha’s Thanneermukkom got his first job and made enough money to buy the four-wheeler vehicle. Before 2020, Shyam was fed up with fending questions like ‘Don’t you have a job yet?’ from villagers. Then came the pandemic.
“When Covid hit, I stopped looking for jobs,” Shyam recalled. Things changed during the first lockdown, when a Covid first-line treatment centre (CFLTC) was opened in his locality. “At the time, villagers would panic even if a single Covid case was reported. So, getting volunteers for the CFLTC was tough as no family was ready to send youths there. I started working there without remuneration. Later, our panchayat authorities told us that we would be paid Rs 750 daily,” said Shyam.
“I worked for nearly four months in the first wave and three months in the second. When the CFLTC closed, I had around Rs 1.5 lakh in my account. I bought an autorickshaw with the money,” he said.
Shyam did not think twice about naming his vehicle. “I named it ‘Covid-19’ as the pandemic helped me get a job. Now I earn nearly Rs 800 per day,” he said. Though his autorickshaw now helps the villagers get to their destinations in time, Shyam is still ridiculed at times for his vehicle’s name.
“Even my friends and family members tease me. Some passengers jokingly ask me whether they will get Covid if they travel in my vehicle. Some even said my autorickshaw was the reason they were unable to forget about the virus. However, I won’t change it,” he said. The ‘Covid-19’ autorickshaw and its owner give preference to Covid patients or people going for Covid tests. Such passengers also get special discounts.