As the Covid-19 tally in Gujarat crossed the 14,000 mark in little over two months, the varied people of the state have decisively displayed the good, bad and the ugly sides of humanity.

Two much maligned sections of people have shown large heartedness at many places while the perceived ‘more-nationalist-than-thou’ have cashed in on the human crisis to make the fast buck. As the lockdown conditions were strictly enforced, some ‘enterprising’ people in Rajkot quickly forged the seal and signature of the district collector and sold the emergency service ‘pass’ at Rs 1,000 to any one willing to move around.

At least 17 people were arrested for the forgery and black mailing. But around the same in the same city, a Sikh policeman realised the importance of Muslims breaking their Ramzan fast and, thus, went about distributing dates for ‘Iftaar’ just before dusk.

In Bhavnagar, Muslims arranged the cremation of the lone Hindu old man whose children are abroad. They consulted Hindus in other areas to follow all rituals of the deceased’s faith. But in Surat, activists of a political party cheated the migrant labourers by selling them train tickets in premium.

In Ahmedabad, three people were held for issuing fake ‘travel tokens’ for Rs 1,000 each to 300 migrant workers eager to go to their native places. In Palanpur of north Gujarat, a young nurse opted out of her baby shower ceremony to stay on duty in the wake of the rising Covid-19 cases.

Women police constables in Vadodara cooked food for 600 migrant labourers rendered homeless due to the lockdown. In the same city known as the cultural capital of Gujarat, a 15-year-old boy Aman Vania called off his birthday celebrations and instead distributed face masks to all sanitation workers in the neighbourhood.

But, at the police station in Keshod of Junagadh district, the cops were caught hosting the birthday party of a colleague. Around the same time, policemen in Odhav area of southern Ahmedabad prepared food packets for migrant workers stranded on the roads to Hindi heartland.

While the good and bad may be evenly balanced, the ugly was stealing of ornaments, watch and mobile phone of a Covid-19 patient who died in Ahmedabad last week.