Perumbavoor: The relief camps that are opened all over Kerala have become centres of love, fraternity, and camaraderie. Food played a significant role in bonding millions of people who have either lost their homes or are displaced.
A day in the relief camp starts with a glass of hot black tea. Breakfast is served around 9 am, and would include combinations like upma and banana, bread and egg curry, or boiled tapioca and chutney. For lunch, piping hot rice would be accompanied by sambar, avail, thoran, and pickle - an unavoidable side dish for Keralites. Snacks or a spicy mix of boiled vegetables is served with the evening tea. Dinner is ready by 8 pm.
Though the dishes or curries vary in different camps, enough food and ingredients are supplied to each camp, leaving no room for complaint.
Food is cooked jointly by everyone in the camp. While the volunteers do the cooking, the residents too join in, peeling or cutting the vegetables. However, in most camps, the volunteers have given the residents some rest before they return home which needs extensive cleaning before they could move in again.
At places where water has begun to recede, many have returned to their houses to start cleaning up. Food, cooked at the camps, would be supplied to them at their places. These people, however, return to the camps to spend the night. The coordinators at the various camps say that the counters would function like this for two more days. There are registration counters at every relief camp. The government aid would be made available for those who register their names at the relief camps. Police and revenue personnel too are deployed at the camps.
