Saturday, June 12, 2021

Twitter user asks airline to raise baggage limit for carrying free covid kits to his village, wins hearts and a response

Kolkata: A silver lining of the devastating second wave of coronavirus in India has been how people have turned social media into a powerful tool to do good. Recently, a Twitter user reached out to a private airlines to raise his baggage limit, as he wanted to carry Covid test kits to his native village in Bihar. What happened next, is winning hearts online.

As Delhi starts reopening after lockdown, a PhD student, Anupam Priyadarshi, decided to visit his village in Bihar, and carry essential medicines and other supplies to help villagers in their fight against the infectious disease.

Taking to Twitter, the 22-year-old tagged IndiGo to ask if they could extend some help to him. Stating that he plans to carry the supplies for free distribution, he wrote: “This may exceed my 15kg baggage limit. Could you pls increase my baggage limit for this noble cause?”

Soon, the tweet caught the attention of the domestic airlines, which readily allowed him to carry the excess baggage free of cost. Talking to IndianExpress.com, Priyadarshi, who will be flying out to Patna from New Delhi Saturday early morning, said the company has agreed to his request.

"They have allowed me the special privilege by giving permission to carry more weight than the prescribed limit. I will be carrying around 5kg extra with me and the airlines did not charge me anything,” he said.

After resolving the travel bit, the research scholar then reached out to poet-politician Dr Kumar Vishvas and asked if he could arrange for some Covid kits, so that a Covid care centre could be started at his village of Bankatwa, some 30km away from Motihari, in East Champaran district.

Responding to Priyadarshi, Dr Vishvas responded. “If you have passion, everything helps” while expressing his gratitude to the airline company for stepping in to help.

Explaining his connection with Dr Vishwas, Priyadarshi, who is pursing his PhD in Hindi, said his topic of research is “contribution of Dr Kumar Vishwas in the revival of the oral tradition of modern Hindi poetry”. He said he got 60 kits from the poet’s office, along with sanitisers, masks and some vaporisers as well.

12/06/21 Shreya Das/Indian Express

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