When men and women, after taraweeh (special night prayers in Ramzan), are seen frequenting their favourite restaurants, or have retired for the night, a group of volunteers busy themselves chopping vegetables, cooking and straining rice, and packing the preparation. For, these food packs will find their way, through the roads and lanes of Hyderabad, to those unable to cook the seheri - the pre-dawn meal.
“Eight years ago, when a relative was in the hospital, the attendants found themselves unable to find a place to buy sehri (meal). When we went to deliver food to them, attendants of other patients asked us where we got the food from. That is when we decided to prepare and deliver sehri, free of charge,” says Affan Quadri, of Mehar organisation.
So far, Mr. Quadri, along with his colleague Mohammed Farooq and a team of volunteers led by Mohammed Rafi, have delivered around 400 sehri meals during the first three days of Ramzan. White rice, tamaate ki chutney and tahaari were served.
“One of us buys the ration - rice, vegetables, oils - and then another takes care of cooking gas, stoves and all that is associated with cooking,” says Mr. Quadri.
Volunteers led my Mohammed Rafi get to work around midnight. And by 2.30 a.m. , food is cooked and neatly packed. By 3 a.m., volunteers leave the kitchen in Golconda to make deliveries.
“Today, which is on the fourth of Ramzan, we will be delivering to locations such as Narsingi, Abids, Dargah area in Jubilee Hills. For the family of somebody who is being treated at a hospital, cooking sehri (meal) is next to impossible. This is one of the key reasons why we began this. Today, we got a request from Gachibowli for 75 meals,” Mr., Quadri says, adding that volunteers go home to have their sehri meal only after the deliveries are made.
Khalid Parveen, a well-known activist from Hyderabad, and volunteers, have been busy making sehri meals. While she began her endeavour when the COVID- 19 pandemic broke out, Ms. Parveen says that since Ramzan began this year, 200 meals are being prepared every day. “As the days go by, the requirement for the number of meals increases,” says Ms. Parveen.
