‘When Corona Came Knocking’ – By Pammy Kaul
The indefatigable Pammy Kaul after a lot of requests, agreed to pen her journey through the pandemic. It’s special because she thought out of the box, selflessly, and has perhaps set a unique precedent to think community.
The corona pandemic has been a traumatic and difficult time for people all over the world. There is hardly any country or human being who has not been affected by this pandemic. At the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, our city was under complete curfew but we were lucky enough to have got the curfew passes, this gave me an opportunity to look after the needs of my team @ Headmasters, friends and look after the stray dogs.
On the health side, I pretty much set myself a goal to eat healthy and practice yoga for the healing of mind and body. This activity has become pretty much part of my life post coronavirus today. This habit has stayed with me even now and I feel more energetic and stable in both my mind and body.
Because of the pandemic and the lockdown thereof, I invited stray dogs into my garden so as to be able to feed them. Through the three months of lockdown, I was looking after these ten dogs. Today, I feel very happy that they are completely part of my daily life.
On the people side, I tried to ensure that my salon staff, at-least had enough food available at their homes to feed their families and their children.
Finally, the last deed which we are proud of is our conceiving and executing the “Save the Barbers” programme. “Save the Barbers” Campaign essentially educate barbers who work under trees about health and safety standards. We ensured that each of these barbers were given a safety kit to help them not catch a disease. The safety kit comprised of a PPE kit, hand sanitizers, gloves, masks, disposable brushes, etc. This program was done in association with the Rotary Club of Chandigarh. I also got an opportunity to sharpen my culinary skills by baking around 20 cakes a day in order to raise funds to be able to Save the Barbers. I am thankful to my friends, family, and team to have supported the cause. The cakes were later sold at Headmasters Salon for clients to buy at INR150 with all the information related to the cause displayed. This created awareness about the program and we received a lot of support. As for the exact numbers, we managed to help 500 such barbershops.
