Today is Day 20 of the Total Lockdown in India, and Day 23 of a Lockdown in Mizoram.
Today, the lockdown in India has been officially extended till May 3rd. So, here's to 20 more days of staying in our homes to prevent the spread of CoVid-19. We can do this, people.
Also today, the awesome team and founders of the "PPE Volunteers Group" that I have been writing about on my blog came to my house and paid me a surprise visit!
Don't worry, they got permits from the Magistrate office and Local Level Task Force (LLTF) to distribute masks to different hospitals and LLTFs today, and they stopped by my place briefly on their way to give me free masks for writing about them. I'm really thankful to them for that!
We were extremely cautious too, not even shaking each other's hands even though we were meeting for the first time. We maintained all social distancing protocol and only huddled together very quickly to take the photographs you can in this post. After taking the pics, we were back to maintaining 5m distance from each other.
Though today was the first time we met, we were completely comfortable with each other because we have been interacting at WhatsApp regularly as I would keep asking them information about their work for my blog updates. In case you haven't read about them yet, here are my previous posts:
Day 3: Birth of PPE Volunteers Group
Day 16: PPE Volunteers Group update
Everything is covered in the above two links, from how the group was created and how they operate, to the number of items they've made and the people they have distributed those items to for free. In this update, I am writing about just them as it is the least I can do for the sacrifices that they have given to our Mizo community.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying their work is more important than the other volunteers. All those tailors and designers who have volunteered for this program not just in Aizawl but all across Mizoram like Kolasib, Lunglei, Siaha, Mamit etc are ALL doing a FANTASTIC work as well. I would love to write about them in the future too. For now, since I got to know them very well in the past 3 weeks and because they're the ones who started this whole movement, I just thought people deserve to know more about them.
We had a good chat over coffee at my house as they filled me in with all the current work they're doing and the pending work ahead. They explained to me about how the masks they gave me could be washed and reused etc. And after that, they went on their way to hand over another batch of masks to another locality LLTF. As of today, they have supplied masks to more than 50 different LLTFs in the city of Aizawl, and each LLTF would get around 30-50 masks.
So here is a little bit more personal information about the five of them, who they are, where they're from, and whether they're single or not. :P
1. Bethel Lalparmawii.
Bethel is a designer from Upper Republic and she runs her own fashion house known as "Bethel's Boutique", also situated at Upper Republic. She was the one who created the main "Volunteers Group" WhatsApp group, and from there, we all know the rest of the story. She's only on Instagram, and she had to log back into her Facebook account after 2 years just because I wanted to tag her in this post on Facebook, since I don't have an IG account. :D
2. Lalremruati Betlu.
Lri is a designer from Maubawk and she runs her own shop from her house known as "LR Betlu Design". She's planning to change the name to "Armani Gucci LR Betlu" to attract more customers :P Lri is the only UPC member among the five of them, and she is also an excellent hair stylist as well. She's also the only one among them who "protects" her Facebook pictures, you know, like those Hollywood celebs. :D
3. Jenny Lalduhsaki.
Jenny is a designer from the town of Sesawng, currently settling in Hunthar Veng, and she runs her own fashion shop called "JT Fashion House" situated at Zodin Square. The place also serves as a training centre for aspiring designers, where she spends some time taking classes to teach these students. JT Fashion House is currently used as a base of operation by these five designers to cut and stitch the PPE's in Aizawl.
4. Lalhriatpuii Varte.
Hriati is a B.Ed student from ITI Veng and a wannabe designer at heart. She's the only one among the five of them who doesn't run her own fashion business, but she is passionate and talented as hell. She goes by the name "Hriati Grey" online, probably as a tribute to her favorite actress Sasha Grey :P Hriati also drives her own car which the five of them utilize as transportation to deliver or collect materials and finished products across town.
5. Lalthakimi.
Kimkimi doesn't have a last name or English name :P She is a designer from Armed Veng South, and she currently runs her own fashion store called "STYLE Up" situated at McDonald Hill. My friends from Chaltlang who work at Home Missions School next to her shop had often told me of her beauty and charm long before I even came to know her through this Volunteers initiative. :)
And so, these are the five designers who started this whole Volunteers Group movement and if we get through this Pandemic one day and we all return to our normal lives, please try to visit their design shops mentioned above and maybe order/buy from them. That would be a really cool way of saying thank you to them for their relentless sacrifice.
The work and dedication.
As I have mentioned in my previous posts, these five designers are known as the "Cutting Crew" and they are responsible for purchasing all the required materials and cutting them and then sending them out to various tailors and other designers across the city for stitching (do read my previous posts to know about how they operate).
But here's the thing most people don't know yet. During the first week of this Volunteer's Program, due to the lockdown and difficulty in getting permits to venture outside, these five designers actually camped inside Jenny's shop!
Yup, for an entire week, they all worked from "JT Fashion House" without going home. They cooked their own food inside the shop and even slept inside, while working on the materials the whole time. As for the food, they would take turns cooking, while the rest of them were working.
Before eating dinner, every night they would have a family prayer, a chhung inkhawm and they would also take turns again reading the Bible and saying a prayer. Here they are enjoying the food they cooked.
Simple but delicious food. They usually eat just rice, dal, eggs fry and onion chutney along with assorted pickles as they are the simplest to make.
Towards the end of their week's stay in Jenny's shop, they were running low on food ration, and so other volunteers like Saii from Khatla delivered rice to them.
Others were always ready to help them out. Like when they ran out of drinking water, Hminghluii of Chaltlang came and gave them bottled water.
Apart from that, many people helped them with food & drinks as much as they could. Like when Dr. Doris Zami of Durtlang Synod Hospital came to their shop to collect the PPE's and masks they had made, she brought for them lots of snacks, munchies and refreshments.
In the night, they would use some of the left-over fabric materials as mattresses and they slept on top of it.
What you see above might be a shabby makeshift bed. What I see instead is a glorious nesting pad only deserving for the most gallant nupuiṭha of our society, the cradle of sacrifice and tlawmngaihna.
Sleeping angels of Mizoram.
Indeed they are angels, because angels protect people, and that's exactly what they do once they wake up - cutting and stitching more protective gears for the people of Mizoram.
On a lighter side, when asked who would snore the loudest among them when they all sleep together, all of them agreed that it would be Hriati and Lri. On the question of who would stay up the longest among them, again it would be the two of them, as apparently they would chat with each other for a very long time after lights-out. :D Meanwhile, Bethel apparently grinds her teeth while sleeping, according to Jenny.
For the entire week, they also took bath and pee-pee'ed and poo-poo'ed inside Jenny's shop too. I mean, inside her shop's bathroom of course. They have some dignity :P
Here's proof that they took bath, as you can see from one of my friend's observation below when she was viewing my previous update :D
Now the above pic gave rise to many questions like, is that really an underwear, and if yes, then whose underwear is it, and more importantly, why is there just one underwear, are they all sharing one underwear and taking turns wearing it? :D
Jokes aside, it is apparently a piece of cloth they use to clean the table :D
And so those are some of their experiences. After a week of staying inside the shop, Mizoram too had adjusted to the suddenly imposed lockdown, bureaucratically speaking, and so Pu Lalfakzuala, Sub-Divisional Magistrate and Pu David H Lalthangliana, Deputy Secretary, Home Dept., were issuing them daily permits to continue with their work. They continued to meet at Jenny's shop everyday and then go home in the night.
Bethel also reminded me to mention and thank all their respective LLTFs (Armed Veng South, Upper Republic, Maubawk, Hunthar Veng and ITI Veng) for allowing them to move around during the first week of lockdown when they didn't have permission yet to do their work, and thanks to the LLTF's understanding, more than 50 LLTFs across Aizawl now have masks and other protective gears, not to mention all the items they have given to different hospitals, other essential office staff and border check-gates.
As of today, Bethel and her team heaved a sigh of relief as there is not much demand now, compared to the first week of lockdown, and many of the tailors and designers who had volunteered initially have now left the program. That may sound like bad news but it is actually great news because those people are now busy stitching masks and other protective outfits for their respective localities directly, instead of delegating it through Bethel and her team, hence removing a lot of load from their backs.
So let us continue remembering them in our thoughts and prayers. A very big standing ovation for all of them including all the PPE Volunteers across Mizoram who have signed up for this. You people surely rock!
Signing off for now. Take care everyone.
Ps. If you're still reading this because you want to know which of these amazing five ladies have a boyfriend or not, well the answer is, they are all currently single. wink wink :)
Cheers everyone.
