In a heartwarming instance of reaching out to help, Mohammed Aqeel, a city-based food delivery executive with Zomato from Hyderabad was gifted a motorcycle with crowdfunding after one of his clients discovered that he delivers parcels on a bicycle as he could not afford a bike.
All this started when Mohammad Aqeel on June 14 received an order request from Robin Mukesh who lives in the Koti area of Hyderabad.
Robin Mukesh, an IT employee working in Hyderabad, ordered tea through the food delivery app. "I was working from home and at around 10 PM, I ordered tea from a hotel in Lakdi-Ka-Pool in Hyderabad. As I was tracking my order, I noticed that the delivery executive, named Mohammad Aqeel, who was assigned my order, was in Mehdipatnam soon after I placed the order," Robin told news agency ANI.
Robin further mentioned that within 15 minutes after he placed the order, he received a call from the delivery executive that the order has arrived at the location of his apartments.
"The delivery executive requested me to come downstairs, to receive the order," Robin said.
"As I went downstairs, I saw a young boy who was completely drenched in water due to the rain and to my surprise, he came all the way on a bicycle in just 15 minutes. When asked how was he able to deliver the order so fast, he said that he has been delivering food orders over the bicycle for over a year," he added.
Robin said that he took the permission of the delivery executive to click a picture. While conversing with Aqeel, he found out that the former was pursuing BTech. "I later uploaded the picture along with the whole story on a Facebook page related to food and travel. As soon as I uploaded the picture on social media, there have been numerous appreciation comments and several have come forward to help Aqeel," he told ANI.
The group members decided to raise funds for a bike to be gifted to the delivery man for his dedication towards his profession.
"When I asked Aqeel about what help he needs, he said that it would be really great if he could get a motorbike. So immediately, I initiated a fundraiser on Tuesday night and surprisingly till the next day morning, the target was reached in less than 12 hours. People have been donating to help Aqeel and out of all, a woman, who stays in the USA has sent around Rs 30,000."
In just about 12 hours, Rs 73,000 were raised through online fundraising to help Aqeel. He said, "The fundraising was thereafter forcefully stopped as there were funds flowing in from everywhere."
According to Robin, a TVS XL was bought for Aqeel and handed over to him along with all the necessary items required during the COVID-19 pandemic like masks, sanitizers, and a helmet for his bike.
"After buying all this, Rs 5,000 were left which were then used to pay Aqeel's college fees," Robin said.
Robin has been into social activities for the last two years and has been associated with several NGOs across the city. He said that it gave him great pleasure to help Aqeel with just a single post on Facebook. "Social media platforms can be put for a good use to help people who are in need instead of spitting hate," he said.
Speaking to ANI, Aqeel, thanked everyone who helped him in getting the bike and said that the help he has received has made him extremely happy and further mentioned that he would come forward and help people whenever possible.
He said he started working for Zomato in order to be able to pay fees for his studies.
(With agency inputs)
