It is a hot summer morning and Ravi Kannan is seen whizzing past the length and breadth of the city delivering fruits to customers in apartment buildings and residences. He makes note of each delivery in a slip of paper which lists out the number of deliveries left. One would assume that he has been doing so for years but he began selling fruits only since the lockdown. Prior to it, his primary job was to provide cable TV service to residents.
Mr. Kannan has been a cable TV operator for over 25 years. When his customers were finding it difficult to buy fruits during the lockdown, he could not sit idle. “Many of my customers are almost like my family. They have helped me in times of need, especially with raising my two sons and I have done my job well for them. During the lockdown, many expressed their inability to get fresh fruits. I have decided to do this,” he says.
He goes to Gandhi Market at 2 a.m. to purchase fruits and packs them in cloth bags at his home. The customers usually place orders the previous night. He purchases some fruits in bulk too and assists his friend who has set up a stall at the temporary market at S.I.T. College grounds in Ariyamangalam.
He mans the stall with his friend from 6 a.m. and sets off for deliveries at around 10 a.m. “I do not charge an extra rupee for the deliveries. I sell them at ₹ 10 over the rate I purchase them at the market. I make no profit from the deliveries,” he says. His deliveries are completed by 12 p.m. when he returns to S.I.T. College grounds to help his friend pack up.
He has been widely appreciated on social media, especially city-specific groups on Facebook where residents have been sharing experience of the lockdown. He is popularly known as ‘Cable Kannan.’ “My regular customers have been referring me to their friends and relatives in the city and I am busy serving people at this time.”
