The Joy of giving

Being homeless is a crime in India. To add to that if one is mentally ill along with being homeless it’s even a bigger crime. With no one to care for, neither the family nor the society and certainly not the government for it has too many scams to deal with and too many to commit.

Helping the human beings first then the homeless

It’s against this back drop that Narayanan Krishnan set himself up to work towards the homeless and the mentally ill. And how he chose to work is never unheard of. In his own words, ”Feeding the hungry gives physical nutrition, treating them like human beings gives them mental nutrition”.  So Krishnan was not looking to just feed them instead he went not one step further but he jumped leaps ahead and made them realize that they were human beings by showing the care, the love, the attention all by himself.

He would give them a bath, give them a shave, feed them by hand , day after day, year after year and has been doing since 2002.

Family or cause

Thanks to NRISamay’s interview with Krishnan, the past Sunday, I also learnt that it wasn’t easy. No i don’t mean feeding the people, although that’s not easy either, I meant he had to go against his family to do this. Coming from a typical south indian brahmin family his efforts to help the homeless didn’t go down well with the family. Not only because the homeless were considered untouchables but also because the family thought Krishnan was suffering from some kind of mental illness himself and had tried various alternatives to cure him.

Krishnan removed the sacred thread that type casted him as a brahmin, so he removed the first big obstacle and he proved that he is a human being first. Then he humbly requested his parents to come along with him to meet the homeless and feed them by hand. That experience helped their parents realize the real joy of giving that Krishnan was experiencing.

Scaling his efforts

Krishnan efforts got a real push when he was nominated as the CNN Hero in the year 2010. He good intentions and his human approach helped his efforts to be globally recognized allowing him to raise enough funds to scale his efforts. From building a trust in India, to registering an 501c3 organization in the US ( akshayausa.org ), to building a strong team of volunteers both in India and the US, the global recognition brought him the much needed boost.

The team is now building Akshaya Home that can house up to 400 homeless people with proper medical facilities, kitchen, dining facilities and is slated for completion by 2013.

The US Chapters have also been very actively involved in raising funds for the trust. It’s in this regard that Narayanan is also visiting the US and travelling to various chapters to help with the fund raising activities.

Way behind in ensuring food security : Man was able to go to the moon, build nuclear weapons that can destroy the human race, able to extract oil from deep down in the ocean, replace human hearts, even found cure to some of the very rare diseases but yet, man hasn’t been able to do anything to ensure food security. The basic necessity of a man, hunger, has still no solution. How did we mess up this bad, how did we get our priorities so wrong ?

Thanks to Krishnan and people like him who are trying to bring some sanity to this world. Hope the joy of giving that Krishnan and his team are trying to spread catches on and inspires others.

So if you wish to donate : http://akshayausa.org/donate.php

 

What’s in a debate ?

I think i was in 5th or 6th grade. I vaguely remembered my class leader suggested my name for some inter school singing competition. Don’t ask me why my name was suggested. I had no idea and I don’t even remember now. I didn’t care then, but the day of the competition, when it was my turn to sing the song, I stood infront of everybody and said something like , “My name is Suresh from …. and will be singing Tum Se Acha Kaun Hain”. Everyone was staring at me, waiting to hear what I had to sing. And I froze. Completely, like a statue. Didn’t say a word for the next 10 – 15 seconds. Somehow, I mustered some strength and all I could say was “Sorry” and I left with my head down.

The point I’m trying to say is it’s tough to stand in front of everyone and speak , it’s tough. No matter how young or old you are, if you hadn’t had the exposure before, it’s tough.

For the students of 12 colleges in Ongole, the opportunity came knocking on their doors, when PFL ( People For LokSatta ) launched a series of debates on anti corruption across 12 colleges spanning almost 1000 students, all in less than 2 months. There was a lot that went into pulling these events together, which I will come to in a bit, but the experience the students had was incredible.

There were those who participated the debates and then there were those who witnessed some of their own standing infront of everyone debating the corruption issues. Needless to say the principals, teaching staff were extremely proud of their students as well because they were showing interest in current affairs along with their academics. How do I know all this, well I had the opportunity to speak to a few students who took part in the debates. And when I called them to express gratitude on behalf of PFL, some of the responses took me by surprise. They were very enthusiastic about these debates and were enquiring about when there would be a similar opportunity. Since the team had also recorded all the conversations that transpired between the students, I could see a similar trend.

Most of the students would never have had such an opportunity in their academic life to discuss or debate a non academic related subject at least I never had this. But the students in Ongole grabbed this opportunity with both their hands and made the most of this. Over 1000 students participated across the 12 debates. And that my friend is a very strong statement. There is no celebrity, this is no cricket game, this was an anti corruption debate in a college. Unless the students were not curious, unless they were not enthusiastic, unless they were not concerned about their society, their community, such a participation is not possible. So hats off to the students in Ongole.

And it would be completely unfair if i didn’t mention about the effort that went into organizing these debates, the relentless efforts, the long hours, the frustrations of rejections, the lack of support. But despite everything the team went through with this idea of conducting debates and here we are , after 2 months, the team is gearing up for a mega debate, a debate amongst all the 12 colleges.

Thanks to those who got this idea, who believed in this and who carried this forward and also to all the students in Ongole.

A Mothers plea for mercy !

From the rags to the riches, from the underdogs to becoming the influential , it could have easily been one of the great inspirational true life stories. But one incident changed this and changed this for worse and forever. The only son of the agricultural laborers Lakshmamma and Chandrappa, met with a devastating accident, on the very same day when he was to secure his future as an Aeronautical engineer. The accident resulted in a life threatening brain damage that has left him in a completely vegetative state since the past 15 years.

Mind you not one day, one week or one month or one year, 15 long years, day in and day out, lakshmaamma has witnessed her only son go through this. In all those years Her son didn’t say a word, didn’t take a single step on his own,  didn’t react to emotions, didn’t feel the pain of his parents and worse didn’t even feel even his pain. Lakshmaamma’s husband died 8 years ago leaving her alone to face the unjust , unfair , uphill challenges that life has forced upon them.  And that too

in a country like India,

• where it’s a curse to be born into a poor family and even bigger curse if you happen to be a farmer
• where value of a human life is cheap but very expensive when it requires medical attention
• where there is a govt and govt policies but by and large only for the rich, for the politicians, for the bureaucrats
• where the poor don’t live they struggle to live

Amidst all this 15 years went by. At an age where one would normally retire or at least slow down the pace of life, or enjoy the company of grand children, but lakshmaamma still needs to think about her sons future. What would happen to him when she is gone ? Who will take care of him ? Will they give the same love and affection ? Obviously she can’t trust the government with this, then who else ?

She took a brave decision, a decision which caused quite a stir, a decision which made headlines, a decision which would trigger fierce debates for and against the decision, but if one puts oneself in lakshmammas shoes one would have done the same. No one can answer the questions she raised, what next after her ?

The court turned down her petition citing the age old

• no one has a right to take away a life
• there is no provision in the current law that allows for mercy killing

Well thats true, there is no denying that. But should it always be that way, can it not be done on a case by case basis, can their be no exceptions made. Why does it always need to be by the book ? Is there a fear of a backlash that if one is granted then others might follow, well then they must deal with it. Time for another boom, we saw the boom in the .com industry, we will see a boom in the law industry. I might be trivializing this but the court should have at least

• immediately ordered the government to take care of lakshmamma son
• reconsider the case, give it a patient hearing, understand why a mother , of all the people, would want her only son to die.

Like I said earlier, the value of human life is very little, especially that of a poor man. The courts treatment towards lakshmamma could have been simply academic rather than being humane.

The parents must have been so proud of Janardhan, their Son, for despite all the odds and hardships, he went on to achieve the unimaginable. Unfortunately, their moment of pride was short lived. Not only did their son’s success story ended before it even started, it also rendered their son completely immobile, emotionless, thoughtless or in medical terms in a permanent vegetative state. It’s not easy for any parent to come to terms with the situation.

And I hate to just blog about this and do nothing at all. I wonder who is in a more vegetative state , me or Janardhan. I only wish lakshmamma finds peace with her situation soon.

I can think of some ways

• fight to provide her son with the government support
• do a signature campaign and submit to the judge
• write to the media so it just doesn’t die down just like another headline story

It just is painful to imagine lakshmaamma go through all this at this juncture of her life.

Woh Kaun Thi

Navi Mumbai was very tensed. Schools were closed early, retail shops were closed early and so were the government offices and for that matter even the public transportation was to be shut down in a few hours. It was Bala Saheb’s court hearing and obviously the government was preparing in anticipation of a serious backlash. I admired the proactive measures the government adopted, only problem was that I was going back to Hyderabad and had a train reservation.

My dads friend who was hosted me for a couple of days suggested I leave a couple of hours before than what I had originally planned for, so I can account for the unknowns. I heeded to his advice and somehow managed to get to the train station with plenty of time left for my train departure. It then took about 10-15 minutes to locate the train to Hyderabad. After grabbing a few bottles of water, a few magazines for reading and some snacks, I comfortably sat down in the lower berth of the compartment. I should admit I was relieved that I didn’t have to reschedule my trip and the fact that I was able to get to the train station without a scratch.

There was about an hour left for the train to depart. So i started reading the magazine. And after a while i took a break as i had thought i spent a good 20 – 30 minutes reading the magazine. But it was just 5 minutes. That really scared me. If 5 minutes seemed that long, 24 hours seemed a life time to me. I was getting depressed, really. Just then, i heard a voice, an elderly man calling for help with his luggage. I gave a hand and helped him out. He was sharing the opposite berth in the same compartment. Turns out he was a retired officer in the army, but not much of a talker and neither was I. So after a general introduction, it was the uncomfortable silence. But after a little while, i got used to that. There was about 20 more minutes for the train departure, when the army officer said something that was like a fresh breeze in a hot summer day.

The army officer had to grab something to eat and requested me to look out for her daughter as he was expecting her to join him. The next 15 minutes felt just like a minute. In the meanwhile, the army officer called me yet again and by the time we came back in the compartment, his daughter was there. Must have come from the door on the side of the compartment. She was sleeping in the upper berth. The officer said that she had a long day and was exhausted.

I don’t know why but I just wanted to see her once. I don’t know why.

Then again, i thought may be, just may be, she would wake up in a little while to have her dinner. Obviously i felt awkward asking the officer if she would wake up for dinner, instead I chose to just wait for the next 2 – 3 hours. I didn’t even realize how i spent those couple of hours and it was dinner time. Me and the officer had our dinner, but his daughter didn’t wake up. I gathered some courge to ask him and he said, she is way too tired and would wake up if she really wanted to eat. We went back to the uncomfortable silence again.

I think i might have fallen asleep waiting to see a glimpse of her. I woke up sometime around 6:00am in the morning and i looked up immediately on the upper birth, but there was no one. She was gone and so was the army officer. They must have got down at Nampally before reaching Secunderabad station.

I spent the entire journey in anticipation, in hope of something pleasant, in quest for happiness and not for a moment did i think I about the depressing journey nor did i think about how lonely I would have felt otherwise. There was no one talking to me, there was no one accompanying me but yet the glimmer of hope saw me through the journey. Agreed the journey was just a train journey, but something I had to do it alone. And when travelling the journey alone, who best to accompany than hope.

So it doesn’t matter “Woh Kaun Thi” ?