“Yeh Corona samay mein aap ghar nahin jaa sakte. Aap jahan ruka hain, wahan hi ruko (At this corona time, you can’t go home. Stay back wherever you are).” As little Ayan Mohammad addresses the guest labourers at his hometown Madavoor in Kerala's Kozhikode district, a smile spreads across the listeners' faces, seeing the earnestness with which the seven-year-old boy explains the gravity of the pandemic and the instructions to follow in impeccable Hindi. The boy has been winning hearts of guest workers in Kerala since he started a COVID-19 awareness campaign in Hindi he picked up from his favourite cartoon shows.
The youngest son of teacher couple Saleem Madavoor and Sayida, Ayan is a Class II student at AUP School, Madavoor, and doesn’t know how to read or write Hindi yet. However, he insists on speaking in Hindi throughout the telephonic interview. “Next year onwards, we have Hindi lessons, I will start learning to read and write then,” he says.
One day, Saleem came across a conversation between Ayan and two Bengali labourers who had come to his home asking for some help. “Ayan was telling them about COVID-19 precautions and how important it is to wash hands properly and regularly and to maintain physical distancing. They were keenly listening to him. I was intrigued and asked Ayan if he could explain this in Hindi to more people. He was more than happy to help.”
Saleem coordinated with the workers and asked them to come in batches of four or five to a designated spot where Ayan gives them lessons in handwash technique, precautionary measures, information on government services, assurances on food and any assistance. So far, the little boy has reached out to 48 guest workers from the Hindi-speaking belt residing in his hometown at present. A video of the awareness classes has also gone viral among the guest workers.
Ayan is assisted by siblings – ninth-grader Nihan Rahman and Fathima Neha, an undergraduate – who prepare sanitizers at home and distribute the bottles among the workers after Ayan’s handwash tutorials. The children also engage in vegetable farming in their backyard during the lockdown period. The rest of the time, Ayan says, “we play football, cricket or spend time in a swing in the courtyard”.
A fan of Doraemon, Little Singham, Chhota Bheem and Oggy and the Cockroaches, Ayan, however, denies that he has screen addiction. “I watch TV for just one or two hours a day. And then I hand over the remote to my dad to watch news,” says Ayan, in Hindi again. Asked if he talks in Malayalam, he switches over to his mother tongue and says, “Idaykk (sometimes).” Giggling, he adds that he wants to grow up and become a policeman, a dream he started nurturing after seeing the selfless acts of policemen throughout the crisis days in the state.
Saleem and Sayida are glad that their children are able to do their little bit to help people. And they have one more reason to cheer. “In 2004, we had rescued a nine-year-old girl from beggar mafia. Fasila, who grew up with our children and got married, has now got an appointment letter to join Community Health Centre, Koduvally, as a nurse. All the children are now part of the initiatives to resurrect the state from the crisis,” says Saleem, without hiding his happiness.
