india

Updated: May 04, 2020 22:22 IST

In a sweet gesture, Panchkula police surprised senior citizen, Karan Puri with a cake to cheer him up on his birthday. Inspector Neha Chauhan, says, “We saw a Facebook post by his children tagging us and asking if we could do something for his birthday. So with the help constables Neha, Parvin, Aarti and driver Mahavir, we bought a cake and went to celebrate his birthday.”

As soon as these police personnel spotted the old gentleman in his house, Puri started to retreat back in his house, fearing that they would reprimand him on not following the guidelines of the lockdown. He tells us on phone, the video not only went viral but went into overdrive. “Though politically incorrect, but it spread like coronavirus,” says Puri.

As the global pandemic has brought a host of new experiences, including working from home, home-schooling and online socialising, it has also, unsurprisingly, increased the loneliness of all people. Puri says, “Like everyone else, even I hadn’t stepped out of my house at all due to the lockdown. But seeing so many people after a month with a cake for my birthday made me emotional and tears of happiness rolled out of my eyes.” He jokingly adds, “I have just turned 69 years young and anyone is bound to become emotional at such a celebration.”

For loneliness, he says all of us have to bear it as we have no other choice. He says, “It’s not just senior citizens, but everyone is battling the demon of isolation. We all are social beings and thrive on interactions and meeting new people.”

Senior citizen gets birthday surprise from Haryana Police, video goes viral via @htTweets https://t.co/v7AeGebfpL — Navdeep Virk IPS (@nsvirk) April 29, 2020

Puri, owner of Atma Ram and Sons publishing house, says, “All my family including my granddad has been in publishing. At this time, I am missing my daily routine. More than anything, I miss travelling 11km to my store at Punjab University. Never thought I would say this but I miss the traffic and of course seeing new faces and meeting old acquaintances.”

He has two sons, one settled in Australia and the other in Delhi who had requested Panchkula Police to surprise his father. He says, “I thank ACP Nupur Bisht, who planned the surprise.” Question him on whether he would like to celebrate his birthday like this every year, with the cops, and he laughs and says, “Are you kidding me?”As an afterthought he says, “Well, of course! I have celebrated my birthday in different continents but this was very different and I will cherish it for many years.”