Indian-American Rahul Dubey Won Hearts By Opening His Doors To Protestors
Unless you are clueless about the protests going on in the US right now, you must have definitely heard about Indian-American businessman Rahul Dubey by now!
He opened the doors of his home in Washington to over 70 people demonstrating against the custodial killing of George Floyd. He helped complete strangers, fed them, and made sure they were safe in his house, according to media reports.
The death of 46-year-old African-American Floyd last week in Minneapolis has led to one of the biggest civic unrest in the history of America.
Rahul Dubey, who has been living in Washington DC for the last 17 years, accommodated a large number of people in his house with some adjusting on the couch, some finding space in the rooms, while some were gratified to get rest even on the ledges of the bathtub.
“There are about 75 people in my house. Some have got couch space. There’s a family, a mother, and daughter here, that I gave my son’s room to so they get some peace and quiet. Yeah, even the ledges of the bathtub, and no one’s bitching. They’re happy-no, they’re not happy. They’re safe. They”re cheering.”
“They’re backing each other,” Dubey, 44, told Esquire magazine in an interview on Tuesday.
The day after Monday’s protests, Rahul Dubey, the owner of the Alvarez Dubey Trading Co., appeared in major news media outlets and was hailed as a savior as those who took shelter in his house started tweeting about it.
“Rahul saved lives last night,” one Black Lives Matter activist wrote on Twitter. “He ended this with an inspirational speech about not giving up and keeping up the peaceful fight. What a guy. Thank you, Rahul.”
“I’m at a house in DC after being pepper-sprayed and knocked down by the police. There are about 100 of us in a house surrounded by cops. All the neighbors on this street opened their doors and are tending to protestors. The cops corralled us on this street and sprayed us down,” Allison Lane, one of the protestors, tweeted.
In an interview with ABC News affiliate WJLA, Dubey said that it was about 8:30 p.m. that he was sitting outside and saw police set up a brigade on 15 St. and Swann St. that turned into a holding area.
People started sitting on his porch and asked if they could charge their phone and use his bathroom, he told the news channel. The protestors left his home after the curfew ended at 6 am Tuesday.
“I don’t think there was even a choice in what I did, to be honest. The crowd just came racing through like a tornado. … We had to keep the door open and just kept grabbing people and pulling them in. It’s the same that you would if it’s a storm, and you would have let anyone into your home, I know that,” he told NBC News.
He said that when the police line had finally passed his house, that’s when the people stopped pouring in, and “I was able to shut the door and lock it. People were pouring milk on their faces, and water was being flung around. I went downstairs to get water for people. People were coughing,” he told Esquire.
“I hope that my 13-year-old son grows up to be just as amazing as they are,” Rahul Dubey was quoted as saying by WJLA.
We salute the efforts of Rahul Dubey and the empathy he showed towards people makes us hope that humanity will live to see another day!
