Pratibha Raman

Mohammad Azmat is a programme lead at DXC Technologies in Bengaluru and a weightlifting champion. His life was a breeze with his wife, a 13-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son until 2020. When he, one day, saw this visual of dead bodies being dumped with no dignity in North Karnataka, his priorities changed.

Azmat today is Bengaluru’s helpline when it comes to ration distribution, the burial of COVID patients and more. He is a passionate Power Lifter, who is now the lifesaver of the poor and downtrodden. “I still train for powerlifting, organise championships, but this service has taken priority for now,” he said.

His organisation has been encouraging him to give back to society by providing him with flexible hours and limited assignments. Azmat’s COVID relief work -kick-started during the first wave when he was part of several groups including the Mercy Mission, a conglomerate of NGOs helping people in Covid.

Making India proud: Mohammad Azmat celebrating his victory at an international championship

From packaging food for migrants back then to scrambling for oxygen cylinder to help patients now, he has been relentless.

“There are so many cases that haunt me day and night. We run helter-skelter with a patient, who is breathless, and we finally manage to secure a bed in a hospital, but in a short while after that, we hear that the patient is no more,” he said, adding that the wails of family members linger in mind. When family members are stranded or when the victim is abandoned, Azmat and his team of members are always there with their hearse vans to ensure the dead are given a personal farewell.

There was a time when Azmat received a request to pick up two COVID bodies, one from Whitefield and another from Malleswaram. And soon after he realised that the two were brothers. “Every single moment remains etched in my memory. I saw the children of the two brothers shocked and grief-stricken,” he said.

While on the field, Azmat and his team are extremely careful to ensure COVID protocols are maintained. Masks, sanitisers, PPE kits and social distancing are all in place.

“It was at my residence in Banashankari during my daughter’s birthday that I let my guard down, and I was struck with COVID last year,” said Azmat, adding that his family members have always been worried about his safety since last year.

“Knowing that I am determined to pursue this, they have decided to tag along,” he said.

Mohammad Azmat during a championship of power lifting

The second wave has been unprecedented, according to him. “This is a massacre. ICU beds are running full. Critical cases are surging. Health infrastructure is crumbling. And I feel helpless when I get calls from so many seeking help,” he said, claiming that he has to ruthlessly explain to the sufferers that there’s nothing that can be done.

For Azmat, the bed allotment scam is not new. He said that the “bed for bribe” structure has been an inherent part of the healthcare system even during the first wave as well as pre-COVID time. “This is not a new discovery. I have booked a bed, carried a patient, to later find out that the bed has been taken my another who managed to pay Rs 50,000,” he said.

But scams or not, the sheer number of cases is the killer, said Azmat.  His colleague’s brother died despite being willing to pay for a hospital bed. “We couldn’t get a bed.

There are 100 beds, but then there are 20,000 cases every single day. Let’s assume 10% of those beds are ICU beds, you can do the math. 10,000 ICU beds in all maybe; 16,000 patients waiting for them. So, 6000 are going to die,” he explained.

All that Azmat wants to do is lay down the person with care, be it on the stretcher or into the coffin. While politicians may want to “communalise” during the time of COVID, the situation is different on the ground, he said.

“Nobody cares if I’m a Muslim. And none of my team members is concerned about the religion of those who they serve. There is never hate or suspicion on the ground. I have Rahul, Ambrose, Singh, etc, who work with me. And they are doing a phenomenal job. We are here to serve,” he said.

There is just one thing that this warrior regrets. “When people thank me, I feel like a heel. I end up feeling: I could have done so much more,” said Azmat.

Well, the truth is, seldom do we find people like Azmat, who do even this much.