Charity over celebrations this Christmas for Chennaiites

For Aravind Jayabal of Raindropss, a youth-based organisation, communal harmony, an idea that is being promoted year after year during the festival time, assumed a new meaning this year. With a Santa Claus visiting a church, temple and mosque on Saturday reaching out to the needy, this year the emphasis was on confluence of humanity cutting across religions. It began with the dargah on Mount Road. “We wanted to reach out to the needy outside the places of worship, giving them food, clothes and blankets, while Santa will also be greeting children with small gifts. There is a celebration at a girls’ home in Vysarpadi at the end of it,” said Aravind Jayabal. 

Sneha Mohandoss of Food Bank and her group of volunteers are spreading cheer among those affected by Cyclone Vardah in the city. “We will continue to distribute blankets, along with food to those affected by the recent cyclone. We are planning to meet the requirements of at least a 1,000 people across the city, including areas like Besant Nagar and Saidapet. We also received some contribution from those outside India. We will be trying to cover as many as we can till the end of the year, as a  run up to the New Year as well,” she said. 

There are individuals like architect Zhayynn James, who has plans of picking up food packets for the homeless from restaurants and distributing them among the poor as a small gesture of giving this Christmas greetings. “We just wanted to drive around and hand them around to the homeless,” he says. Similarly, Philip Sathyaraj, a painter, will be marking the day with a ritual that he has been following for almost three years now. “I have this painter friend and guide from whom I learnt a lot. He is now bed ridden and is based in Palani now. Due to his illness, he hasn’t been able to continue with art. I make it a point to send him money around Christmas. That’s a very small token that I can offer to the man who taught me a lot about art,” he said.