Atlanta Indian Grocery Takes Action In Response To COVID Crisis In India

When India’s second wave of COVID-19 started surging last month, Atlanta-based Indian grocery delivery service Subziwalla sprang into action.

The company is raising relief funds through GoFundMe and hosting informational Q&As on the company Instagram account.

Subziwalla co-founders Sajal Rohatgi and Manav Thaker joined GPB’s Rickey Bevington virtually, both from New York, where they were working this week.

Rickey Bevington: Tell me, when did you both realize that what was happening in India was much bigger than maybe was being reported in the news? When did this all start for each of you?

Sajal Rohatgi: The immediate family, for me, started showing sort of infections and report around early April. That's when my uncle, he got infected. My aunt also got infected. And they went through hell in the ICU. They were admitted for almost 25 days. My uncle passed away, unfortunately, but my aunt made it. By mid-April, we had our team members, they started getting infected. We lost one of our team members as well around the same time. It just started unraveling really fast. Out of the 50 we have, half of the team either had [been] infected or were dealing with their family members. It was a very difficult time and very nerve wracking too, looking at WhatsApp every morning and seeing it. We were just traumatized, to see if there's any other news coming out from our family, immediate family or anyone else. Every day you talk to any friend, you don't even want to ask them, "How are you doing?" Because you are scared what response you would get. 

Rickey Bevington: Manav, I'll ask you when you decided collectively, as a company, to really pivot to taking action?

Manav Thaker: We decided at the end of April, early May, really, we need to do something different. Donation support is always going to be there and we're doing that as well. But there's still a sense of helplessness. And if we can alleviate that in any way, then we should. 

Rickey Bevington: Sajal, you mentioned WhatsApp being your source of information and not knowing what to believe. How did you parse through true and false information? 

Sajal Rohatgi: That's what really triggered us to do our Q&A series. There was equally good information and equally bad information as well. WhatsApp definitely played integral role. It was sharing it with our friends and family, sharing it with our colleagues, with our employees. I helped one of the employees get a bed. I'm from Delhi. It was about three hours away that we were able to find a bed for them. That's how challenging it was to find even a regular hospital bed. 

Rickey Bevington: Unbelievable that you found somebody three hours from Delhi a hospital bed. From New York. 

Sajal Rohatgi: That's what is inspiring. People are ready to help. So many people in the diaspora, in Atlanta — our customers — have gone through it. And that's why they really appreciated the Q&A that we were doing so that we can provide more actionable information. 

Rickey Bevington: Manav, talk about the community's response. 

Manav Thaker: It's actually been amazing. I think that for us it's the same reason we started Subziwalla. It was a problem that we were solving for ourselves. It was something that we know we needed and our immediate network needed. And what's been really heartwarming and nice to see is people's response has been much more about what they can do. 

Rickey Bevington: Sajal, you grew up in Delhi, you said, and your wife did. You went to the same high school. Your immediate family is still there. What do you want people here in Georgia to know about what's happening right now? 

Sajal Rohatgi: I think it's two parts that is happening right now in India. So obviously the cases in the metro cities are coming down, but the spread is starting to happen in rural areas. So it's not done yet. It's still spreading. We still would need — about 70% of the population in India lives in rural areas where there's [so] much lack of resources. So whatever you can donate, every penny counts. Second, something or people are not talking about right now is trauma. I'm sitting here, I'm feeling the pain. I don't know how people are feeling who have to be — you know, lost. The loved ones who are there dealing with the hospitals, the lack of resources, the frustration. They have gone through a lot within three weeks, four weeks. As a nation it's going to be hard to come back [from] this. It'll take time and it takes a lot of healing. Talk to your loved ones every day if you're not used to [it]. Have a conversation. Whoever you think has gone through an ordeal, just give them a call.

Rickey Bevington: I'd like to thank both of you for joining me. Thank you so much.