I had always felt the eagerness to visit an old age home to experience
how they manage their lives when we complain about it most of the times
despite all the worldly pleasures. I had got a couple of opportunities
in the past but due to my laziness, I couldn’t pull myself up to fulfil
it.
And finally while working for Bank of America, Hyderabad, my process
gave way to another opportunity and I strongly made up my mind to make it at any cost.
On Sat,27th Feb,2010 at around 9 AM, I headed to office from where a
couple of my office mates would accompany me to the destination. We
started our journey in an office colleague’s car after loading all the
boxes to be given to the old age home residents as aids from the
organisation. On the way, we picked up his 2 little daughters who the
most were thrilled to set off.
The place was around 30 kms away from office and we literally struggled
to find the right way out since it was pretty much in the interiors. At
last 2 of our other office friends who had arrived there already
tracked us out on the way and led us to this place.
We all gathered at the reception hall where 2 of our colleagues who are
dedicatedly associated with this organisation and the warden of this
home familiarised us with a brief overview of this place. We learnt
that the contribution from the govt is bare minimum and a monthly
pension of scarcely 200/- is being provided only to the handicapped
residents of this home and only Rs.75 per person for purchasing basic
necessities. Here I must make a point that these 2 gentlemen have been
providing free medicines on a monthly basis and visiting them
frequently. That’s why they say that you can find GOD in human
beings!!!
It was time that we explored this place .There were 3 floors and we
began with the ground floor. I entered the 1st room and came across 3
ladies there. They would have been in their late 70’s and were decked
up in their best knowing that we were coming to see them .There were 3
iron beds and a bunch of trunks where I guess they would keep their
valuables. Sleeping on iron beds leaving the comforts of home at this
age!!!How miserable that can be!!!
We learnt from these ladies that they have been pushed to this place
due to reasons like children disowning them to son-in-law unwilling to
accommodate them. A thin frail lady sitting on her bed. On approaching
her, she informed that her son had brought her here due to unknown
reasons and now he is no more.Inspite of such pains, we could still
find smile on their faces .They were pleased that at least they could
recount their sorrow and pain to someone.
We then moved to the 2nd floor and stepped inside one of the rooms.
There were 3 handicapped ladies there,2 of them being blind and 1 with
a lost leg. We kept talking to them and cracked jokes to make them
happy .When we reached the 2nd room, we found 2 more blind ladies and a
polio-affected person who was trying to smile in spite of a partially
deformed face. When we asked them to narrate how they spend their
entire day, they gladly informed that radio is compulsory and they
can’t do without it. They had a small stereo kept to listen to music.1
of the ladies took out a small digital watch and communicated the time
(11:47 AM) excitedly by listening to the recording. What modest ways to
stay cheerful!!!
We then made to the topmost floor and entered another room.2 ladies
were lying on the bed and got up hurriedly sensing us inside. I used
the word “sensing” as 1 of them was blind and the other one who was
barely in her 40’s had a broken leg and could hardly sit up. They
folded their hands in gratitude that somebody had come to visit them.
The blind lady started speaking in English and we were dazzled as most
of them spoke in telugu only. She informed that she is a graduate who
used to be an office superintendent and post her blindness that was
caused due to an untimely eye infection diagnosis, she moved in here
around 15 years back. The most amazing thing to learn was that she is a
church counsellor and visits the church daily from 9-5 pm to offer her
service. She has not taken her disability as an alibi to stay back when
most of us are afraid to step out of our high comfort zones!!!
While I was chatting up with this lady, I heard a loud burst of
laughter coming from the other room. I finished my dialogue and rushed
into the other room to break into the suspense. I found a cheerful lady
well in her 70’s cracking jokes and laughing her heart out with
everyone.She asked me to settle down next to her..She was well
conversant with Hindi and Marathi. She revealed that her name was S-
Sakkubai and gave an extra importance to the S.There was this other
lady in the room who was walking on her knees.On questioning, we learnt
that she had lost her legs in a railway accident .She also informed
that her daughter was studying in the 10th and showed us her picture
as well. She also mentioned that her daughter visits her at times.
After visiting a couple of more ladies, we clicked pictures with all of
them and handed over the provisions we had brought for them..The
generous smile on their faces was deeply touching. We are seldom
content with the highly sophisticated systems in our lives but a few
basic necessities could make such a big difference to someone else’s
life!!!
The last event to follow was to celebrate holi with the home residents
and we gathered all the colors and sweets to rejoice the festival of colors. We went to every room and sprinkled colors on everyone’s face and
distributed sweets. They seemed to be the happiest as much as we were
enjoying the festivity in such a glorious manner.
how they manage their lives when we complain about it most of the times
despite all the worldly pleasures. I had got a couple of opportunities
in the past but due to my laziness, I couldn’t pull myself up to fulfil
it.
And finally while working for Bank of America, Hyderabad, my process
gave way to another opportunity and I strongly made up my mind to make it at any cost.
On Sat,27th Feb,2010 at around 9 AM, I headed to office from where a
couple of my office mates would accompany me to the destination. We
started our journey in an office colleague’s car after loading all the
boxes to be given to the old age home residents as aids from the
organisation. On the way, we picked up his 2 little daughters who the
most were thrilled to set off.
The place was around 30 kms away from office and we literally struggled
to find the right way out since it was pretty much in the interiors. At
last 2 of our other office friends who had arrived there already
tracked us out on the way and led us to this place.
We all gathered at the reception hall where 2 of our colleagues who are
dedicatedly associated with this organisation and the warden of this
home familiarised us with a brief overview of this place. We learnt
that the contribution from the govt is bare minimum and a monthly
pension of scarcely 200/- is being provided only to the handicapped
residents of this home and only Rs.75 per person for purchasing basic
necessities. Here I must make a point that these 2 gentlemen have been
providing free medicines on a monthly basis and visiting them
frequently. That’s why they say that you can find GOD in human
beings!!!
It was time that we explored this place .There were 3 floors and we
began with the ground floor. I entered the 1st room and came across 3
ladies there. They would have been in their late 70’s and were decked
up in their best knowing that we were coming to see them .There were 3
iron beds and a bunch of trunks where I guess they would keep their
valuables. Sleeping on iron beds leaving the comforts of home at this
age!!!How miserable that can be!!!
We learnt from these ladies that they have been pushed to this place
due to reasons like children disowning them to son-in-law unwilling to
accommodate them. A thin frail lady sitting on her bed. On approaching
her, she informed that her son had brought her here due to unknown
reasons and now he is no more.Inspite of such pains, we could stillfind smile on their faces .They were pleased that at least they could
recount their sorrow and pain to someone.
We then moved to the 2nd floor and stepped inside one of the rooms.
There were 3 handicapped ladies there,2 of them being blind and 1 with
a lost leg. We kept talking to them and cracked jokes to make them
happy .When we reached the 2nd room, we found 2 more blind ladies and a
polio-affected person who was trying to smile in spite of a partiallydeformed face. When we asked them to narrate how they spend their
entire day, they gladly informed that radio is compulsory and they
can’t do without it. They had a small stereo kept to listen to music.1
of the ladies took out a small digital watch and communicated the time
(11:47 AM) excitedly by listening to the recording. What modest ways to
stay cheerful!!!
We then made to the topmost floor and entered another room.2 ladies
were lying on the bed and got up hurriedly sensing us inside. I used
the word “sensing” as 1 of them was blind and the other one who was
barely in her 40’s had a broken leg and could hardly sit up. They
folded their hands in gratitude that somebody had come to visit them.
The blind lady started speaking in English and we were dazzled as mostof them spoke in telugu only. She informed that she is a graduate who
used to be an office superintendent and post her blindness that was
caused due to an untimely eye infection diagnosis, she moved in here
around 15 years back. The most amazing thing to learn was that she is a
church counsellor and visits the church daily from 9-5 pm to offer her
service. She has not taken her disability as an alibi to stay back when
most of us are afraid to step out of our high comfort zones!!!
While I was chatting up with this lady, I heard a loud burst of
laughter coming from the other room. I finished my dialogue and rushed
into the other room to break into the suspense. I found a cheerful lady
well in her 70’s cracking jokes and laughing her heart out with
everyone.She asked me to settle down next to her..She was well
conversant with Hindi and Marathi. She revealed that her name was S-Sakkubai and gave an extra importance to the S.There was this other
lady in the room who was walking on her knees.On questioning, we learnt
that she had lost her legs in a railway accident .She also informed
that her daughter was studying in the 10th and showed us her picture
as well. She also mentioned that her daughter visits her at times.
After visiting a couple of more ladies, we clicked pictures with all of
them and handed over the provisions we had brought for them..The
generous smile on their faces was deeply touching. We are seldom
content with the highly sophisticated systems in our lives but a few
basic necessities could make such a big difference to someone else’s
life!!!
The last event to follow was to celebrate holi with the home residents
and we gathered all the colors and sweets to rejoice the festival of colors. We went to every room and sprinkled colors on everyone’s face anddistributed sweets. They seemed to be the happiest as much as we were
enjoying the festivity in such a glorious manner.
It was then time for us to leave this place and all I can say is that
this was 1 of the best days of our lives , a day when we could bring smiles to a few less privileged people’s lives and be a part of their joy and distress!!!
