Residents of Baisakhi Abasan took to the streets, paintbrush in hand, to raise awareness about Covid-19.

A huge coronavirus catches the eye from a distance as one approaches AMP Vaisaakhi Mall from Bidhannagar Bishyakabi Bidyayatan. Above it, there are visuals of three health workers promoting hand washing and a welcome message accompanying a sketch of a policeman. Under all of it is the message Amra korbo jai (We shall overcome).

“We have sanitised our housing complex twice and distributed masks. This is another way we thought of raising awareness,” said president of Baisakhi Abasan Samity Radhagobinda Sil.

Secretary Sukhendu Khamaru is himself an artist and designed the street art. “We started working on Saturday evening but a shower washed it all off in front of our eyes. We resumed work with distemper paint the next evening and completed after 2am,” he said.

The committee wants to hold a meeting to pay respects to those who have fallen to Covid-19, both patients and health workers, as also the migrant labourers mauled recently on the railway tracks. “We shall do so once the lockdown ends,” Sil said.