Indirani Murugesan has kept herself busy delivering milk packets to as many as 25 houses every day. Her day begins at 4.30 a.m. daily. These past few days she has started sporting a handkerchief covering her nose and mouth. “I was told to use a handkerchief as protection as I am going out a lot,” she said.
Indirani thinks she must be 60 or 65 years old. “Those days they never had anything written down,” she says.
One of her sons works as a cab driver and another, in a company. They moved to their native village Kaveripattinam near Kancheepuram. “They wanted me to return but I refused as it is not like just for a few days that I could hand over the responsibility to someone else. People depend on me to deliver their milk packets,” she said.
Indirani and Murugesan came to Chennai around 30 years ago. Until seven years ago, she had a place to call home as he worked as a watchman in an apartment complex in T. Nagar. But after his death she had to move out.
With the State going under lockdown, Indirani had to find a roof over her head. An elderly couple in the apartment complex where her husband had been a watchman came to her rescue. They took her in as a resident domestic help. “They also take care of my food. I can go about my work without concern,” she said.
The monthly renewal of milk cards has become a cause for concern for her. “Usually I would ask people to pay after purchasing the cards. But this time I had to ask them to pay in advance. Now that we have to stand some distance apart from each other, the queue is bound to be very long. I will have to stand may be for several hours,” she said.
