Ward Police Officer Gurpreet Singh presents a cake for Myra Garg (in her father’s lap) in Mansa (Express Photo)
RITESH GARG, a businessman and his wife Shimpi Rani living in ward number 5 of Mansa were happy and gloomy both on Thursday. Happy because it was the first birthday of their second child Myra Garg, and gloomy because they were not able to celebrate it the way they had wanted because of the ongoing lockdown.
Garg said, “No bakery shop in the city was open and hence it was not possible for us to get a cake for our daughter. We could not invite anyone. However there is one Ward Police Officer (WPO) in every ward and we called him at around 10 am and told him that we wanted to buy a cake. At around 4.30 pm, to our surprise, we saw WPO Gurpreet Singh ring our door bell and when we went out, we saw him holding a birthday cake for our daughter.” Singh had come on his PCR bike.
Gurpreet did not charge anything from the family, even though they insisted. Not only did Gurpreet provide cake to the family, but Mansa SSP Dr Narinder Bhargav also announced, “We will send cakes to families whose kids’ first birthdays fall during the lockdown period. We understand that the first birthday is an important memory for parents and the entire family. Hence this gesture is for them. We have asked them to inform the WPOs well in time, so that he/ she can tie up with bakers to get the cake made and later cops themselves will deliver it to their houses.”
Gurpreet Singh said, “It was my niece’s first birthday last week, but we could not celebrate. So I can understand how parents feel if they are not able to celebrate their kids’ birthdays.”
The first cake was given free of cost, but from now on, residents will have to pay for the cake while cops will help in delivering them. Though grocery stores are open, but bakeries are closed and even if a few multipurpose stores have cakes, they are very few in number and hence delivery in the entire city through 4-5 multipurpose stores is not possible, information from police department stated.
As part of the birthday celebrations, Myra’s parents had also made aloo tikki, cheese sandwiches to celebrate their child’s birthday.
A video which is going viral on social media shows cops in New York singing a birthday song for a boy who is sitting in the balcony of his house and is sad because he cannot invite his friends due to the COVID-19 scare. Cops singing while sitting inside their cars brought a smile on the child’s face.
Shimpi Rani said, “Neighbours also conveyed their wishes by clapping while standing near the entrance of our house. We appreciate Mansa police for this unique initiative. Our daughter loved the icing on cake and she relished it a lot.”