Mumbai: Millions of people over the world are losing their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial crises caused by it.
One of the many victims of the deadly disease has been Balveer Chand, a lookalike of Sachin Tendulkar who not only lost his job but has also tested positive for COVID-19.
Balveer is popular among Indian cricket fans as he looks like a carbon copy of Tendulkar. Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar had invited him to the commentary box during the Test match played between India and Pakistan in New Delhi in 1999.
After the match he met Tendulkar who posed for a few pictures and gave him his autograph. This was the same match in which Anil Kumble created history with ten wickets in an innings.
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After this Balveer became famous among Sachin’s fans, he got various chances to act in commercials as a poor man’s Tendulkar.
He was also working as a brand ambassador for a fast food chain in Mumbai. But 50-year-old Balveer lost his job due to the lockdown caused by COVID-19. He had returned to his home in Punjab along with his family as he was unable to pay rent in Mumbai.
“Many staff lost their jobs including me added,” Chand.
He further said, “My company authority told me that they will give me my job back but only when the situation becomes normal.”
On the other hand Balveer and his entire family were tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from Mumbai to their village.
Even though he had taken all the precautionary measures while returning to his village by train, he found many passengers who were very careless.
“We had 15 bottles of sanitizer and N95 masks with us and the food was also our own, but there were many travelers who were very careless. I can say with my experience that traveling at this time is not safe from anywhere,” he said.
The entire situation put Balveer’s job at risk. Even though the authorities of his company were ready to take him back after normalcy, his COVID-19 positive report may force the company to reconsider their decision.
PNN