As Diwali, the festival of lights approached in the dark days of the pandemic, Pune SSM volunteers decided to visit an old age home to spread cheer with food and masks for the inmates. Most told sad tales of being abandoned at the home by their children. The volunteers quietly noticed the paucity of warm clothes and blankets and decided to get jackets made for all of them personalized with their names inscribed. The thoughtful gesture brought a glint of happiness to their eyes, reviving memories of their sense of identity and self- worth in the days gone by.

They also received warm woolen blankets as did construction workers and the homeless in Hyderabad. The Varanasi winter was also assuaged by volunteers distributing blankets there. Chennai volunteers distributed clothes to indigent cancer patients and nightwear to women in shelters for the homeless. In Ahmedabad, shirts were distributed to children in orphanages and a home for the mentally challenged.