I asked them to work in small groups in their own areas and raise funds. “I got calls from other groups of people who wanted to join us. But he was happy when two more Odia people joined him on Sunday. Sofen had initially discussed the idea with two of his Odia colleagues at work who denied joining him. The donation may not be huge but humanity is something we should learn from them.” I got donations of Rs 10-20 from hawkers or labours. People who did not understand English came to me and enquired. I visited street food stalls and little shops to raise fund. “Then, I started my campaign from road side. He took a picture of the incident and posted it on social media, thus gaining a lot of attention by Odias living in Pune on the disaster online. However, when he was standing outside a mall for the same, they asked him to leave even after he tried convincing them. The idea was unique and he hoped people would take selfies with him, post it and urge others to donate. I was also gathering ground report from my parents, relatives and friends who were in Bhubaneswar, till the network was on.” And when I found that the wind speed will be more than 180Km/Hr, I knew what is going to happen. Before Fani hit Odisha, I was rigorously following the metrological site for updates. For fund-raising, we used to paint our faces and make different types of climate awareness pictures as well as raise funds for NGO. I learnt face painting awareness in Germany and was a part of climate science awareness in Heidelberg. When asked about this unique way of raising funds, he says, “My motto is to create awareness too. An only child, Sofen is well educated and works as a Research and Development scientist at an MNC in Pune. This approach of Sofen might lead you to make certain assumptions. Meet Dr Sofen Kumar Jena who painted his entire face and, with a placard, went in and around Pune, gathering funds for cyclone Fani affected areas for donation to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF). While most have taken the e-payment route or the social media approach, there are a few who are working on ground, quite literally. But, Odia citizens living outside the state are acutely aware of the situation back home and are doing all they can to ensure help reaches in every which way to their land.
Cyclone Fani might not have garnered much coverage from Indian media.