Timely help for the COVID-hit

Parents of a support group for special-needs children pass the hat around and reach supplies to Bala Vihar in Kilpauk when 78 of its residents test positive for the Coronavirus

Self-pity and empathy are indistinguishable, but for their focal point. Both respond readily to pain, even exaggerating it to optimise the response. The pandemic has instantiated innumerable acts of empathy, with volunteers springing up overnight to serve others, sometimes to the point of suppressing the instinct for self-preservation. Recently, when Bala Vihar, a home for intellectually challenged children in Kilpauk, was quarantined with 78 COVID-positive residents lodged in an isolation block inside, an SUV trundled to its gates loaded with essentials. Donors swinging by Bala Vihar regularly to drop supplies had dwindled to a trickle during the pandemic. With the premises being temporarily sealed off by the Greater Chennai Corporation to keep the contagion in check, the trickle had reduced further. So these supplies were accepted with the eagerness of parched earth receiving the first showers of a monsoon.