#CovidTales: This grandma’s pickles aid Covid relief efforts

Meet this 88-year-old Usha Gupta, who makes and sells a variety of pickles, to help those who are fighting Covid-19. She decided to start this initiative after she lost her husband to the virus during the second wave in Delhi last year.

New Delhi

Delhiite Usha Gupta has taken to making pickles, to help the Covid positive patients, after she lost her husband to Covid-19 in 2021.

Last year when the second Covid wave flooded Delhiites with grief, many lost their dear ones to the virus. Among the ones left grieving was Usha Gupta, who recalls: “My husband and I were tested Covid positive in April 2021, and were put on oxygen support in the hospital. I saw a lot of young people collapse in front of me, and kept reassuring my husband that I’ll be by his side. But three weeks after hospitalisation, I lost him. He was 93. And after having spent six long decades with a partner, I was suddenly left alone, not knowing how to live life without him.”

But the 88-year-old grandma promised herself: “Main himmat nahi harungi”. And her indomitable spirit supported her keen desire to help other Covid positive people through an initiative that’s now called, Pickled With Love. “When I told my three daughters that I want to contribute to Covid relief, and asked them to take a lakh or two from my savings and donate it to someone whose family members are fighting Covid, they refused to take any money from me! Instead, they encouraged me to make pickles, and even ordered for bottles in which I could pack them, and created a logo for the brand,” says this resident of Sarita Vihar, adding, “The profits from selling the pickles go to an NGO that works for infants.”

It wasn’t easy to take up this arduous task as age-related issues such as back pain posed quite a challenge for Gupta. Yet she ordered kilos and kilos of raw mangoes, to be salted, oiled and pickled, following the traditional recipes she had learned in her maiden life when she lived in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, in pre independence India. “When I pickled the first few batches of mangoes, in the first month itself we sold about 200 bottles. Since then we have been flooded with orders, including some from abroad. The proceeds from these have helped in procuring meals for about 65,000 homeless people,” she says, adding, “When I hear how many people we have been able to help, I get a satisfaction that I wouldn’t have had, if I had simply given away some cash for charity. These pickles are my way of paying tribute to my husband, who was an engineer and worked with honesty all his life.”

Gupta’s granddaughter, Dr Radhika Batra who is a pediatrician in neonatalogy, shares, “When nani figured that nanaji’s case is too far gone, she surrendered the ICU bed for someone younger who had a fighting chance. The bed finally went to a 26-year-old naval officer. I think he made it... There was one girl who lost her mother and sister around the same time. Her father wasn’t eating anything. But when he was offered nani’s home-made mango chutney, he ate roti saying its taste reminded him of what his wife used to make... There are many such tales. People call up from all across the country lauding my nani’s spirit. She certainly has nerves of steel and I’m proud of her. I’m sure nanaji would be too!”

As the city fights the third Covid wave, this endearing grandma continues to prepare pickles everyday, and has even taken to devoting her mornings to writing cookbooks. Her latest being a manual on preventing and managing obesity. But ask her about the biggest life lesson she has learnt, and pat comes the reply: “Himmat na haarein, zindagi koi na koi raasta zaroor dikhayegi.”

Author tweets @siddhijainn

Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter