Bengaluru: At a time when businessmen dealing in essential commodities are trying to exploit the situation arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown by overcharging groceries, vegetables and meat, a Muslim family from Kolar district in Karnataka has set an example of sorts by giving away their priced possession to feed the hungry. Disturbed by the plight and struggle of the hunger-stricken beggars, ragpickers and homeless to obtain a day’s meal, Tajammul Pasha (40) and his younger brother Muzammil Pasha (32) decided to sell-off their 30×40 fit piece of land located in Autonagar area of Kolar town to feed the hungry.
Tajammul speaking to deccandigest.com expressed, “we were disturbed by the sight of countless poor families sleeping without food around our area, as it has become terribly difficult for them to arrange two ends meal due to loss of labor amid the lockdown.”
When asked what motivated them to sell their property and spend its entire proceeds in a charity when they themselves are not so rich, Tajammul narrated the story of their upbringing as destitute in extreme penury. Tajammul said he had lost both his parents when he was just 5-year-old and his two siblings – a brother 3 and sister 1. After the death of their parents, their grandmother brought all the three to Gauripet in Kolar, then they all were raised in the Lateefa Banu mosque of Kolar as destitute, taken care by the people of the area. Both the brothers could only manage to study till grade-III and then started working in a banana mandi. When in thirties, their life took a new direction when they started their real-estate business, which effectively put a break on the pangs of hunger.
In an unprecdent grand generosity, the Pashas sold out their property for 25 lakh and the entire money has gone into feeding the poor in extreme need due to the lockdown. Tajammul says, “when distributing food, we don’t see faith of the hungry, but their hunger. Neither we are doing this to make a foothold in politics.”
The family has brought over 30 ton of rice and truck loads of other groceries. Their home now gives a look of a supermarket godown and kitchen room a large restaurant kitchen. More than 20 people are working day and night to make food kits ready to distribute. They have also erected a large makeshift kitchen outside their house to provide cooked food for the homeless, beggars and ragpickers who can’t afford to cook their food. The Pashas have started this gigantic task two days after the countrywide lockdown was announced and aim to continue till April 31, though they are now exhausted of their 25 lakhs. Along with food kits that contain all the essentials of daily life, they also provide sanitizers and face masks with the kits.
