The day started off as usual by teaching bhajans to the patients in the occupational therapy room. However, there was something missing… and that would be my voice! I had screamed so loud while singing bhajans all last week so that the patients could hear me well… but I remembered that with the will power we will get the energy. Sure enough, once I surrendered to God, I was able to sing in a squeaky yet fairly loud voice. The patients loved the bhajans as usual. Some were fighting because one lady kept criticizing the others around her for their minor mistakes while singing. The patients are very sensitive… both the offender and the offended. One lady kept spitting at another lady because she was told not to enter the office room. Then the lady who was asking her to leave picked up a plastic bat and started hitting her with it. I requested her to stop… and I got a rude reply. I kept quiet, not knowing what to do. Soon, some people handled the situation in a calm manner.
There was an achievement that I’m very proud of… there was this lady who would always sit against the pillar at the back of the room. She refused to participate in the bhajans the first few days… then I walked up to her and started to hold her hands and make her clap. She then would clap anytime I walked by her. Today, she did the same… however… the second time I went by her side singing and leading bhajans… she started talking to me. She first said she needs a loan of Rs.100 to get back her gold chain and something else from the pawnshop. Then she kept on going about lakhs of money and how someone pushed her down. She came and told me about some random stuff. In the end, I asked her to come to the front of the room and sing. She clapped and sang in the front of the room. I was purely proud of the progress that she made from building rapport with her. I realized how important rapport skills are when working with people.
We then went to the section called “Karunai Illam,” at Maduravayil. This was a home for the dying destitute. There were also rescued psychiatric patients who were unruly. After deciding that we were ready for the tour, we waited for quite a while. The caretakers had to make sure that the patients were decently dressed before we enter their place. Some of the psychiatric patients are so unruly that it’s quite difficult to maintain a dress code due to how severely they’re affected mentally.
First we visited a room full of grandmothers. Each grandma welcomed us with such a great smile… some adored me like grandmas usually do. One person had a severe skin disease and there were lots of flies around her. There were a pair of cute grandmas who were both deaf mute and dumb and were best friends. I was told that they talk for hours and hours with each other. It was so sweet to hear that they take care of one another too. When I realized that these people were so innocent, and that their families did not want anything to do with them… I became overwhelmed.
Then we visited many rooms full of psychiatric patients, or people who were about to become a dying destitute if they were left uncared for. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t exactly pay attention to what the coordinator (social worker) was telling me. It was even slightly difficult to pay attention to how he was interacting with the people there. Hats off to the gentleman I’m referring to! He’s got tremendous amounts of skill to calmly deal with people.
There were a few people there that caught my attention. One lady kept showing me her nightdress and saying that her nightdress was the same peach color as the chudi I was wearing. I was glad that she was able to recognize that. Another lady held my hand tightly when we visited a room… to be honest… I was scared. She may have looked scary or acted in a manner that scared me, but all she did was hold my hand. Then I realized that every human being’s emotional needs are the same as I’ve learnt in the Tony Robbins field. All she wanted was to be loved and accepted. Then there was a lady who kept on coming to ask if she could go home. The coordinator I was with cleverly answered her by saying I said I’m already looking, don’t worry. She repeatedly asked, and he repeatedly answered. He raised his voice slightly to make sure the message got through to her. Then there was another deaf and dumb lady… who could make noises, but not speak. She kept making gestures of a mustache, referring to Papa Vidyaakar, and saying something, which I assume, was to take her back home. She kept on walking with us for a while… not letting me concentrate on what the coordinator had to say. Even the old grandmas kept requesting him to take him back. One lady kept asking has the bus to this place arrived? Will you take me? He answers, “no…what can I do? The man who drives the bus does not respond… I keep on calling him, but he doesn’t respond” (in a very funny way). He handled each person differently. There was another lady who kept saying oh, eyes are crying. I thought she was referring to someone with some weird nickname, and I was wondering whom that could be. However, she was saying that her eyes were crying, hands hit people… the coordinator tells me… she says mouth wouldn’t eat, my legs don’t walk. To her, each part of the body is a separate person with separate identity. That was unique to see that.
I had seen all of this, and I was overwhelmed. Didn’t know what I was feeling, but simply overwhelmed. The coordinator (social worker) was interrogating a lady that was recently rescued. He was doing so gather information to restore her. If she spoke Tamil, I would’ve understood. She was speaking Hindi. I was not in the best state of mind. I just stepped outside for a long time.
What does all of this mean? Is God being cruel? Or is this the destiny of these people? But shouldn’t I be thankful that the Udavum Karangal authorities rescued all these people and now they’re safe and cared for? How many other people are out there uncared for? As Papa Vidyaakar said in his speech 4 years ago in Dallas… if everyone simply cared for their own family members and took care of them… the society would not have such abandoned people. There are so many teenagers who hardly understand their parents and want to just leave the house. However, here the social workers were trying so hard to restore these people. The people here have nobody – and I mean nobody – in their family who wants them back or their family is not financially or emotionally capable of caring for them.
I was thinking about why we are so focused about how society thinks of us. I mean, what’s so great about achieving something so grandeur and having a huge amount of wealth and properties? What was truly great was the amount of patience and service that the social workers here were doing. I’ve hardly been here for a week and a half, and I have experienced such a tremendous amount of satisfaction… and I have lots of fans (little kids). This is truly internally rewarding. I still feel I could do a lot more… and that I’m not doing enough around here. What surprised me was the social worker who shows me around and takes care of me by letting me know what my next assignment is… He stated that he feels he could do a lot more and that he’s not doing enough. I was like… ummmm… uncle, I strongly disagree. What is so humble is that all the people no matter even if their job is a huge job, simply just state that they’re just doing a small portion of what Papa Vidyaakar is doing. The amount of emotional strength that they have just amazes me.
The day continued with my Balvikas classes. I must say today’s classes were exceptionally great. I’m not sure if it was the interaction from the kids, or the examples that I gave… or the story itself... but with everything combined, both the classes today were a grand success. I was so happy that I could get through to the kids with the messages from the stories today.
Today was indeed an emotional day, filled with lots of newfound realizations and lots of eye openers. Let us all make sure we take care of our family members and our extended family members to make sure that they don’t end up this way. That is the service that we can provide to mankind and our society.
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