Bengaluru: Taking extra care of staff, senior citizens

BENGALURU: A sprawling society of more than 4,500 residents in Sobha City Apartment on Thanisandra Main Road juggled an array of activities and initiatives during the lockdown. This not only helped them weave a strong sense of community, but also kept them safe from Covid-19.
Mahesh Savanth, president, Sobha City Apartment Owners Association, attributes their smooth sailing to the co-operation between association members, trust of residents and unending support from the staff.
“When plans were still being chalked out at the government level, we decided to quickly create Corona Care, a quarantine facility within our community. We also had a robust system in place, whereby we took care of the health of our senior citizens by following government guidelines. While Hoysala vehicles would pick up and drop them in case of health emergencies, we also took permission from the government to use self-driven cars for the same purpose,” said Savanth.
From installing contactfree sanitiser dispensers in lifts to allowing only trusted vendors, the association put the basics in order first.
The decisions were taken with inputs from representatives of all six blocks. The apartment has 1,935 flats. Apart from Savanth, the others who steered the association during this phase were PV Balasubramanian (secretary), Ravindran M (treasurer), Siddhartha Indrakanti (security lead), Bhaumik Chokshi (club house lead) and Aroul Radhakrishnan (infrastructure lead).
Chokshi said the support staff, apart from doing their regular job, also helped the association take care of senior citizens and residents under home quarantine. The residents, he said, volunteered to serve them meals, tea and coffee, besides helping them with groceries to last for two weeks.
Savanth said the managing committee considered requests from senior citizens for domestic help and deputed house-keeping staff to assist them. They followed a tracker system to ensure quarantined members stayed indoors.
The complex observed ‘No Cook Sunday’. Those interested in cooking prepared a variety of dishes for the other residents every Sunday for nominal rates. “With no maids or the option of eating out, it was natural for people to feel bored. This initiative helped cooking enthusiasts do something they love, while others could to take the day off,” said Chokshi, adding orders were placed through WhatsApp and the items door delivered.