A farmer, who has lost much in the rains and winds in Kerala, brings out a bunch of ripe bananas to be sent to a relief camp for flood victims. The bananas are bought by people at a collection centre for a thousand rupees. And for the thousand rupees, a textile shopkeeper sells clothes worth a lot more to be sent to victims of the flood.

This chain story of good deeds began when a team from News 18 went to meet a plantain farmer in Rajakattu, Idukki, to tell the story of a man who lost over a thousand trees in the rains this year. “His name is Ashokan. In the floods last year, he had lost quite a lot, and he was just making up for the loss this year when the second round of rains destroyed his trees. But that didn’t stop him from contributing to the flood relief. He brought a bunch of bananas and asked us to send it to a collection centre. He said he has nothing else to give,” says MS Anish Kumar, a journalist with News 18.

Anish put a Facebook post about Ashokan’s generosity. Seeing it, volunteers at the Kattappana relief collection centre, contacted Anish, to buy the bananas from him for Rs 1000. “And with this money, I went to a textile shop to get clothes to be sent to a relief camp in Wayanad. I went to buy casual clothes but the shop owner insisted on giving expensive clothes, that would cost a lot more than the thousand rupees I gave him,” Anish says.

He took the clothes to the Kattappana municipal office, from where the clothes would be taken to a relief camp in Wayanad. “And that is how a bunch of bananas became a set of expensive clothes,” Anish says.  

Also read: Do for Kerala: From footpath vendor Noushad to many more, how ordinary people are helping