Sri's Musings from Bangalore

In this narrative, I have shared three very heart warming stories - One of a Telugu film star and how he continued to maintain a strong relationship with his wife despite a severe handicap she developed; Another, about an engineer who continued to make huge strides and contributions, even after he became severly handicapped; And a third story about a friend’s own personal involvement in social service work this summer. I think you will be moved and motivated, inspired too, by these stories just as I was.

I was also very heartended to read how auto drivers in Bhopal have mobilized to help victims of road mishaps. More details follow…

Also, in this narrative, I wanted to share info. about an org. dedicated to social services. And, I think you will like nice news digest on the web. It’s called gandhiserve.org.

The 3 stories are from my friend Mr. N. Subramanyam (he’s my childhood friend’s husband), an Asst. prof at REC Warrangal. I have shared his narrative, verbatim. This first story has a strong parallel to “Superman” Christopher Reeve and how his wife served him after his handicap - she kept on keeping on and died soon after her husband died, as if there was nothing more to live for anymore…
http://www.chrisreevehomepage.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6223386/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=39045

Mr Subramanyam wrote...
“Every Sunday I watch a program "PELLI PUSTAKAM" in one of the TV channels. This program is about introducing a celebrity along with his/her spouse. The interview centers round the institution of marriage and how they have come along in their married life. In the recent episode of this program they introduced one Telugu actor by name CHINNA. His wife who was normal at the time of marriage, developed a rare nervous disorder after the birth of her second daughter. Due to this problem the hands and legs do not receive proper signals from the brain. The result is that she has to put a lot of effort to move. Currently she experiences a lot of pain in walking from one place to another. It is in this state that she finds a very understanding and considerate husband. YOU MAY ASK ME - WHAT IS SO GREAT? Afterall it is duty. The point is, coming from the glow field of the celluloid world where people hank after external beauty, here is one guy whom I thought looked more for internal beauty. Except cooking which she does very well and enjoys, this actor has completely taken over all the responsibilities of a traditional mother in the household and is managing his professional and family life to perfection. I felt this was an example of whiff of fresh air in the present day world of materialism.
With warm regards
N.Subrahmanyam”

Here’s a story about the handicapped engineer…a life with a bit of parallel to the world famous Stephen Hawkin (born 300 years after Galileo as stated on the web site about him:
http://www.hawking.org.uk/home/hindex.html), who gave us the best seller 'A Brief History of Time'

It’s my pleasure to share this beautiful story…

“Dear Ms. Srilakshmi
I would like to share a brief story about a person known to me. The person's name is RAJAN PAUL. He was a student of B.Tech Mechical Engineering at RECW in 1960-65. After graduation he joined Tata motors where he was instrumental in the design of the shaft system which is still being used in all commercial vehicles of TATA. He moved for better pastures to the Gulf. Here he met with an accident in a swimming pool during a diving session. The accident made him a paraplegic, so, except his brain and eyes he could not use his hands and legs and other parts of his body and his entire life and dreams lie shattered.

Here comes the real story.

A normal person in such a physical state would have given up everything and resigned to his fate. But this man, encouraged and helped by his family and friends continued his professional career as a machine designer and has helped the growth of a group of companies called SEVANA in Cochin who manufacture kitchen aids, packaging machines, healthcare products and several others and his contribution towards design of quality products enabled this group to win an award from Small Scale Industries dept. He used to visit his office regularly and gave instructions orally to his team about the product designs and helped manufacture quality products.

I understand through my friends in Kerala that he passed away recently. I feel we (persons with all limbs intact) have a lot to learn and practice from such people who had a NEVER SAY DIE attitude towards life and who never looked for sympathy from others but empathy and a chance to prove themselves. MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE.
With regards
N.Subrahmanyam”

Here’s a touching story about dedication, care and concern…
It’s about an Eye camp that Mr. Subramaniam’s family organized.
He writes...
“Recently our family, to be specific my elder brother by name Mr Prasad Nallamothu who resides in San Jose, USA sponsored a free eye camp for old and disabled people in our native village, a small village by name CHAVAVARIPALEM. The eye camp was coordinated by TANA, USA and conducted under the aegis of Sankar Eye Hospital, Guntur (an organization of Sankara trust, Kanchi) (SEHG). So all our family members assembled in our village on 23 July and helped in coordinating this camp. I provided the background and preparatory logistic support, one of my sister’s who is a Principal of a degree college in Vijayawada brought her students to perform the role of volunteers. The team from SEHG came in two buses by 8 AM and commenced the camp by 9 AM and between 9 AM and 1 PM they examined in all about 400 patients and identified 50 urgent cases (based on age and criticality of cataract complication) and these people were taken immediately after lunch to Guntur for cataract surgery. In addition to these 50 people about 150 more patients of the 400 who attended the camp were identified to be requiring cataract surgery. These patients would be transported to and back to our village in block periods of about one week intervals to SEHG where cataract surgeries are performed ABSOLUTELY FREE. The sponsorship amount paid by my brother was $600 and it was to cover camp expenses and sponsor the surgery for 50 patients. For the rest of the patients, SEHG either approaches the donor, in this case my brother and asks whether he would sponsor some more surgeries OR else meet the expenses from their own resources. All our family members contributed towards some more surgeries and ALL in ALL it was a satisfying experience to be part of a good cause. In my opinion more than the effort/support of donors the effort of SEHG in eradicating a major cause of blindness in our country is really laudable and to be appreciated.
With best wishes
N.Subrahmanyam”

….

After the above heart warming stories….

….It was heartening to read about auto (those popular 3 wheelers) drivers in Bhopal. They have gathered together, organized and mobilized to ensure that anyone injured on the road gets immediate medical attention. They drive them to the nearest hospital as soon as they spot the victim, saving precious lives.
[ASIDE: One day when I hopped onto an auto, after a few minutes ride, I turned back and to my surprise, I saw a child sleeping in the back. It’s a small ledge there actually. He must be 2-3 years old! I was shocked. My initial reaction was one of fear/scare. What if this baby/child was kidnapped? But then again, who would be doing such a thing in broad daylight? I let that negative thought pass and asked the driver about the sleeping child. It so happened that the little child was the son of the driver. When he went home for lunch, the boy wanted to go with dad on his job and just after he started the ride, he fell asleep I suppose. And dad put him on that rickety ledge behind – the boot (dickie)! He was sound asleep on bumpy Bangalore roads that afternoon :) Very strange I thought.]

….

My husband told me about this strange incident which happenend a couple of months ago.
His friends from Vaatsalya witnessed or were in a car accident, I don’t remember which.
(http://www.vaatsalya.com/
& the Vaatsalya team:
http://vaatsalya.com/blogs/?p=49)
Anyway, a bus was involved and it was a fatal accident. They managed to call for and get help. The police came, and drove away the injured to the hospital. The bus also took off I think with many of the survivors. My husband’s friends got off the bus (they were riding in it) to help out, Someone who had passed away in that collision was also taken out from the bus and placed on the roadside. The bus took off, the police van/car was gone, and these friends (couple of them I think) were left with a dead body of someone unknown to them in the pitch dark night on the highway! It took some time for the police or someone else to come back to get them and the body!! Would this happen in the US roads/highways, I wondered? What about liability, insurance and all the worries. Strange are the ways here and very sad indeed about the deceased.

….

I saw this in a recent Outlook magazine (Sept 4th 2006). There was an article about Xavier Institute of Social Services (started in 1955). The article described its 50 years of excellence. The institute was started with a mission to be a top management school, to work towards empowerment of deprived and to be a lead agency for NGO capacity building. They have academic and non-academic programs and entrepreneurship development programs, training people for self employment. More about Xavier Institute is at: http://ranchiexpress.com/education/xiss.htm

.....

My colleague sent his link to me. They publish a weekly news digest. Their archives are worth visiting and spending some of your “Soul Satifying” moments at. See: http://www.gandhiserve.org/news/news.html

….

We all resonate with different aspects of “doing good”. I think (and hope) some of you will relate to one or more of the good things above and perhaps go off and do more of what makes you happy, comforted and satisfies your soul. As a result, you will leave us with better communities.

-Sri