Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Thinking beyond ourselves...
…….I read in the book “An Open Heart” – Practising Compasion in Everyday life – The Dalai Lama edited by Nicholas Vreeland.
Quoting from the book again “It is also important that we reflect upon the kindness of others…. We must recognize how our fotune is really dependent upon the cooperation and contribution of others”.
When I read this, I was reminded of the kindness of a friend, about her giving back. This is a personal story she shared with me. I was awed by her large heartedness and by the treatment that she and her family metted out to those who worked for them for over two years. It showed me that significant individual monetary donations can change lives …
A “Pentioners Paradise” to a “City of Expats” it seems to be morfing, this Bangalore is. There are many NRIs who have returned to “big”: positions with huge salaries (huge because they get paid their American or European salaries to live and work in India for short periods of time – say a couple of years)
ASIDE: I got this from an Atlas book Maya bought recently. India’s GDP (PPP US$) is 2,670. Contrast this with GDP of UK – about 10 times more at 26,150 and that of US at 35,750 – over 13 times more!
Some of them ex-pats are sharing their fortunes and making a difference in the lives of people they meet. It’s wonderful to come across these people, who are contributing to our communities, albeit in small numbers - uplifting the needy, doing their small part in bridging the economic divide, increasing the strength of the growing middle class in Bangalore….
She was an acquaintance at first and then I got to know her more as a colleage and a friend. I remember her mentioning that she would give some significant donation to her domestic helpers when she left. She spoke about it – about ther intention to help people who had made their life comfortable here.
Here’s what she shared with me…
“You may appreciate this…..
When we lived in Bangalore, we had a driver, a cook and a baby sitter. They were very good people though unreliable and needed some large amount of herding. Nevertheless we had them in our employment all for the whole 2.5 years we lived there and they helped us tremendously. Without them I couldn’t have worked and performed as well as I did.
When we left, we gave them each a bunch of money. We thought that maybe we could help turn their lives around rather than give dribs and drabs. So with the 60K we gave our driver, he bought a new car. He supports a wife, parents and three children. When we arrived, he was clearing just around 6k a month which was barely enough. Now he is renting out the car he bought and is clearing around 25K each month. He said that what we did was a turning point in his life!!! I am very proud.
I debate about telling this to anyone but maybe just maybe it may inspire someone else to do the same.
The cook unfortunately has been sick and hasn’t mentioned the money or what she did with it. I sure hope the 50K is not all spent
The babysitter tried a business venture but it failed. She is waiting to get married. At least the 40K will help her rather than get her family into debt – even though I totally disagree with the dowry system, she has to follow it”
I was moved by this and asked her permission to share this. I could not have said it better, so instead or paraphrasing, I’m it sharing it verbatim.
My friend and her family are off to another country, another city. They carry their large-heartedness with them and I’m sure they are “Making a Difference” in the lives of some others who they are in contact with now.
Continuing the quote from “An Open Heart”….
“We must help others to the degree that we can…..As our selfish ways diminish and our altruism grows, we become happier, as do those around us”
….
“Every aspect of our present well-being is due the hard work on the part of others. As we look around us at the buildings we live and work in, the roads we travel, the clothes we wear, or the food we eat, we must acknowledge that all are provided by others. None of these would exist for us, to enjoy and make use of, were it not for the kindness of so many people unknown to us. As we contemplate in this manner, our appreciation for others grows, so does our empathy and closeness to them”
Such a simple thought, yet so profound!! I could not help ponder on this …and smile with a sense of gratitude at the sweeper who was cleaning our very dusty road, early one morn.
Continuing to quote from Dalai Lama’s words from the book “Open Heart”
“… So much work has gone into providing us with the shirt we are wearing, from planting the cotton seed to weaving the fabric and sewing the garment. The slice of bread we eat had to be baked by someone. The wheat had to be planted by someone else, and after irrigation and fertilization had to be harvested and milled into flour. This had to be kneaded into dough and then baked appropriately. It would be impossible to count all the people involved with providing us with a simple slice of bread. In many cases machines do a lot of the work; however they had to be invented and produced and must be supervised”
….. I will have a whole new outlook when I get by next loaf of freshly baked bread from our nearby Melkote Iyengar bakery :)
Friday, February 09, 2007
An Alumni Associaion - making a difference ….
It gives me great pleasure to share this info. with you. I got it from a friend who is a faculty at the National Institute of Technology, Warangal (formerly REC Warangal). I received it late Nov. last year.
Here are two wonderful stories of an Alumni Association coming together to help when it was most needed, making such a difference and a positive impact.
I have given some info. about Mindbeautiful.com – an org. that a person I know in Portland has started to address Metal Illness.
My friend wrote thus:
“Dear Ms SrilakshmiI wish to share a few more events/happenings in my domain:
First case: On October 6, 2006 EENADU, the popular Telugu daily carried a news item about the plight of a bright and poor girl student who was suffering from mental depression and had not been able to complete her engineering education from NIT Warangal. Her name is Sasikala. As the newspaper has an e-edition, it was seen by several of our Alumni. This started a flurry of activity with several people offering monetary help, several coming forward to locate her and identify her credentials. The result was that she was shifted from Jammalamadugu, her native place to Rajahmundry, was put up in an Alumni's house and was given the best possible medical treatment. She has now recovered quite well and had visited the college with an assistant to check her academic backlogs. She seems to be determined to complete her course. The feeling of Alumni had gone to such an extent that one of them (an NRI residing in USA) whose child had a similar medical problem and was treated contacted the specialist, brought him to RJY and got this girl Sasikala, admitted. We all are now hoping that the efforts of all these noble souls will bear fruit in her success.
Second case: One of our Alumni's family was shattered in a span of one month. The Alumni's wife passed away due to kidney failure and within a month this Alumni who was working in a steel mill in Raipur passed away due to heart attack leaving their three children who are all in Engineering education, as orphans. Here also our fellow alumni have mobilized a sizeable fund and assured these children that they are not orphans but now children of a larger family THE NITW FAMILY.
With regards,
Dr.N.Subrahmanyam Asst.Professor, Dept.of Electrical Engineering & Faculty In-charge, Alumni AffairsNational Institute of Technology, Warangal (formerly REC Warangal) WARANGAL - 506 004,(A.P) INDIA”
What a coming family and what a coming together at a time of dire need! It’s wonderful to see good things happening around us every day.
On another note, many people suffer from depression and don’t know it. They suffer in silence. I know of one lady, Gayatri Ramprasad, in Portland, Oregon. She turned around her life after experiencing severe mental health issues and deep depression for years. She got excellent support from her husband and children. She started an organization called MindBeautiful (http://www.mindbeautiful.com - a beautiful web site -- the intro quotes are very nice). It's so wonderful to see what a great advocate she has now become and how she’s able to reach out and make a difference. One year, we went on the NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) walk that she organized in Portland. Recently, she received an Eli Lily Lifetime Achievement award and quoted "Having survived the devastation of suicidal depression, I am dedicated to serve as a candle in the dark, lighting the way to recovery for others like me."
Friday, February 02, 2007
Enlightening Evening….
It was an enactment of Krishna’s story and the decline (washout actually) of the Yadava clan (kula). An unsual story, but choreographed and displayed with precision and poise. The costumes were dazzling, the music was perfect and the artists rendered their elaborate dialogs immacutaley, in Kannada. The props were simple, yet perfect.
“In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.” ~Aaron Rose
There was a huzzle before the start of each scene - when the lights were dimmed, when performers were led onto the stage by a whole lot of volunteers…. because they needed a little help to get on and off the un-familiar terrain of the stage at ADA Rangamandira on JC Road in Bangalore. Unfamiliar, because all the performers - actors and actresses, were blind!
……
“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness” ~Chinese Proverb
One of the speakers at the anniversary celebrations of Matru School for the blind, re-iterated that quote, in Kannada. So true. The children and teachers of this school were the stars that evening. “They are not blind” said one of the digintaries. We’ve just seen that they have converted what we might call their “scars” to “stars”. What a transformation, indeed!
“When you possess light within, you see it externally” ~Anaïs Nin
It was a humling evening, that cool Saturday, Jan 12th, and very enjoyable.
“A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways - by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul.” ~Plato
…..
There were 6 people on the dias (stage) that evening. All of them spoke to the audience after the program. Each one of them was awestruck and speechless, very humbled too. They were so moved, they spoke briefly and eloquently. None of their talks lasted more than a few minutes, unlike the long speeches I’ve heard from chief guests at other programs I have attended here in Bangalore.
Perhaps the children and teachers of Matru School for the blind, took their speech away? And left them dumbfounded and awestruck? Just as they left me that evening. The speakers, all in high places, and from the upper echelons of society, egos if any were curbed. They were emotional and had no words to express their feelings, so they said few words. The list of invited dignitaries included:
---Brigadier Madan and his wife
---Kadur Ramaswamy – retired teacher and noted Kannada writer
---G N Ramakrishna Reddy - Technical Education
---K. Basavaraj
---Ganshyam Das.
---Sharda Devi – A Kannada writer now living in Chicago.
It was an evening well spent. I did not know what to expect when my friend, Sudha, said that there is a program of this school at ADA Rangmandira in town. I wanted to see them. So, I attended, not expecting anything. We had recently raised some funds for the organization. I had reached out to a few friends in the US and a couple of family members here had also contributed. In all, the request was for Rs. 25,000 (a little over $500). To my amazement and pleasant surprise, we reached this goal after just a couple of conversations with relatives here and an E-mail sent out to a few friends and family in the US. The funds exceeded this goal and we plan to donate it to the school for other dire needs they also have.
The program was to start at 5.30 pm. Renganathan, Maya and myself landed there right on time. There was a big poster at the entrance giving details of the show – an anniversary celebration for “Matru School for the Blind”. However, only a handful of people were present and the hall seemed so empty. The chief guests were there and us and a couple of others. People started slowly tricking in. The stage was being set and posters were being put up – all as we sat there waiting for the show to begin. I thought of the days I volunteered for ICA (India Cultural Assoc.) and SAWERA (South Asian Women’s Empowerment and Resource Center) in Portland – how we organized and went through events, bringing all the stuff loaded in the boot (trunk/dikki) of our cars and getting ready, sometimes on time, sometimes late, but doing it anyway and making a difference, a change and an impact.
As we waited, we saw more than a dozen kids in uniform, walk in. They came in a single file, holding hands. They were all little boys and girls from the school, all blind. They sat next to us, in the same row! I was sad and happy for them at the same time. They were going to “see’ their classmates and teachers perform on stage. It was a big day!
Among the group of children in the audience, I noticed a little older child who seemed to be retarted. Later, I heard that “Matru School for the Blind” does not turn away anyone in need. It’s not just the visually impaired that they cater to!
Finally about about 45 min or so from the scheduled start time, things were all set to go!
The program started off with a song by a young girl, Yasmin. She sang a devotional welcome song, beautifully - it was loud and clear and her voice was so very confident. She was already in her costume for the drama she was going to be in – soon to follow this brief invocation and small opening ceremony. She kept a perfect beat with her thalam. Then came a very eloquent speech in English – brief welcome speech it was, from an all too confident little boy (perhaps 8 year old), Srinivas. He was oblivisous of the sage (hermit) costume he was dressed up in. He could not see that costume or the awe struck audience in front of him. That did not seem to deter him from delivering his speech, all from memory! There was another dialog delivery form yet another little boy and then it was on to the main show – a long drama production.
The story of Krishna and his life was enacted beautifully - the rise and fall of the Yadava clan. The whole program was in Kannanda. Although we could understand the language perfectly, we could follow the mythological story, very well indeed! It was rendered perfectly. Kudos to the director and all the artists! The confidence of the actors, their dialog rendition, how they negotiated the stage, the elaborate costumes, the choreography, the live music … was all so laudable! It’s still amazing to me that these folks cannot differentiate light and dark, day and night….
In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. ~Blaise Pascal
I was very happy to meet the founder of the org. Ms.Muktha R. Gubbi. She started the org. in year 2001. She looked radiant with her energy, warm smile and simple but
elegant orange sari. She was energetic and running around, trying to make sure all things were in order. She even came around the audience and said “Thanks for coming”.
“Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light. ~Norman B. Rice
Karur Ramaswamy, an invited guest was Muktha’s teacher over 4 decades ago. He was amazed to meet his old student, so many years later. He applauded her profusely and said “what a proud teacher he was today”. He felt he should have kept in touch with her all these years she was off doing such a wondrous thing. But he just came to know only now. He thanked her for the opportunity to be there that evening and witness her immense contribution to the society. A teacher being humbled by the work of his student and being so extremely proud, it was a rare feeling to experience. “Better to know now – better late than never”, he added.
For the first time, I saw a very moved audience who started to pledge and give contributions then and ther like crazy. Earlier, Muktha had called my friend and asked us to get some money for needed expenses. So, we had some money drawn out. After the show, it seemed she did not need that help we were ready to offer. The dignitaries also pledged and gave. G.N. Ramakrishna Reddy – from Technical Education have Rs. 5001 on the spot, Ganshyam Das handed a Rs.10,001 donation spontaneously, Sharada Devi the Kannada writer residing in Chicago had brought her books to sell and all proceeds of the sale went to the school. I also purchased a copy for Rs. 150. My cousins and mom can read and I will find out the story.
After the drama was done, a group of Engineering college students took to the stage and played songs on keyboard and guitar. They dedicated the songs to all the great performers of that evening who had moved our hearts. It was an impromptu performance but most people were rushed and started to leave, as the show had lasted well over an hour longer than planned!
There were eye-donation forms that people could pick up on their way out. There was an appeal for interested people to sign up to give the gift of sight when our time in this world was over.
As we said goodbye, we met Muktha at the door, a little baby in hand. He was a 2-3 days old when he was left at her doorstep. He came into her life quite suddenly, over a year ago. This past weekend, she celebrated the first birthday of this child. He is no orphan but a dear child to a whole community, thanks to the work of one dedicated woman and a whole lot of supporters she has been able to gather.
We had raised some Rs. 40K for a specific need Muktha had – heart surgery expenses for one of the blind children. She needed Rs. 25K only. Rest of the Rs. 1lakh she was able to raise through other means. We handed her Rs. 5K at the show. Remaining we will be handing to the Matru School very soon. Rs. 25K was for surgery, rest will be for various other needs. One major donor among this is interested in visiting this place. We’ll have an opportunity to do this very soon this month. I’m looking forward to my visit. Muktha called me last night (Feb 2nd) and updated me on the situation of the little boy. He’s not doing too well and they might expedite the surgery date from the currently scheduled appointment in April.
Matru School for the Blind is located in Yelahanka Satellite town close to Bangalore. Muktha has given the children a fine home and makes sure they get good education and don’t get left behind in any which way. The children go to various classes including music lessons. Over 50 people reside here and the place is maintained very well by everyone living there, I hear.
I have posted a first hand report about the organization. My friend Sudha wrote this after her own visit there recently. The article appeared in our local newspaper. See:
http://sribloremusings.blogspot.com/2007/02/matru-school-for-blind-in-yelahanka.html
“Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and then we'll need no other light” ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
For “Matru School for the blind”, that someday is the present, today!
-Sri
Matru School for the Blind in Yelahanka
Sudha Narasimhachar
In the Indian culture, daughters and daughters-in-law are said to bring light into homes. A home is never complete without a woman in it. She spreads the fragrance of love and care in the home. Ms.Muktha R. Gubbi has brought light into the lives of not just a home but forty four children and half a dozen other women.
Mathru School for the Blind, a free residential school for blind children is located amidst a group of residential apartment buildings and stands out in that dull group, with its bright colours, aesthetic structure, lovely garden and neat environs. This school offers formal education to blind children under the CBSE syllabus up to middle school and under the State syllabus thereafter, in the English medium.While garbage dumps adorn all other residential buildings, Mathru School has maintained its surroundings spic and span. As I entered this wonderfully designed building, I was welcomed by Ms.Bhagya with a warm smile. As I followed her inside the corridors of the school, I admired the shocking bright colours used for the walls and the dust free interiors.The building is spacious, well equipped and well ventilated with brightly coloured walls. Ms.Muktha later told me that she had used bright colours on purpose to add colours to the colourless lives of the blind. Ms.Bhagya showed me around the school. The two-storey building has a place for everything and everything is in its place there. Lovely visitors’ lounge, office room, prayer hall, teachers’ lounge, dining hall, kitchen, Ms.Muktha’s quarter, class rooms, computer lab, Braille lab, dormitories for girls and boys and neatly maintained bathrooms.
Little did I realize till I reached the end of my tour that Ms.Bhagya was also visually impaired. I was stunned with her confident walk and talk. This was not all. No child or teacher uses any support to move around that building. Everybody walks confidently in the right direction. Never a moment is there any apathy or sorrow or demand for sympathy in the air.
“As any other physically challenged person, I too hate sympathy”, says Muktha, as she unfurls her story of how she joined the bandwagon of physically challenged people. In 1985, she lost a major portion of one of her feet in a serious bus accident and her life was shattered for three years. She did not know that God had such a noble purpose for her life and that the course of her life would take a very sharp turn. After 3 years of harrowing experience, futile attempts for medical help and prayers, Ms.Muktha got used to walking on her amputated foot. She staunchly believes that Guru Raghavendra of Manthralaya has only helped her to get back on foot.
“I could not walk for 3 years. I was then doing my M.A.(Economics). I met with other personal tragedies too. I lost my father. I could never reconcile to the fact that I may not be able to walk for the rest of my life. I went to various places like Jaipur Artificial Limb Centre, to see if I could get some equipment to help me walk. No hopes anywhere. Then I surrendered to God and visited Manthralaya. I poured out all my woes to the great Guru Raghavendra and you may not believe, it is after this visit that I started walking. Till today, I strongly believe that Guru Raghavendra is behind all my deeds and he is blessing me.”
Until she narrated this incident and showed her foot, I could never imagine that she was handicapped.
How did she get inspired to start this school?
“After my M.A., I did my law. I now practice law as well teach in a couple of colleges. Meanwhile, I was in touch with the Vocational Rehabilitation Centre, as a trainee. There I got inspired to do something for the physically challenged children. One day, I met a shattered mother of a 3-year old blind girl child and my field of activity was decided. I started off with a couple of blind children in my house at Maruthinagar, near Yelahanka in 2001. As the numbers started slowly increasing, I put up a thatched hut nearby. After a while, the number of students increased further and I was finding it difficult to manage in that small place. I then planned to have a bigger building of my own and approached the Government for the land.”
In order to expand the school and provide better amenities for the children, Ms.Muktha purchased this 10000sq.ft. site in Yelahanka Satellite Town from Karnataka Housing Board, after a lot of efforts. But she was in for a shock when she found that none of the neighbours around liked the idea of the school coming up there. She faced a lot of retaliation and humiliation from the neighbours. But with God’s grace and her strong determination, Muktha completed this project costing Rs.73 lakhs with purely the donations from kind hearted people from around the world. Asha for Education (New Jersey Chapter) of the U.S. have donated a huge chunk Rs.25 lakhs. The Acharya Educational Institutions, Hesaraghatta has taken care of a part of the construction, while one more organization has donated the solar heating system and lovely furniture costing nearly Rs.60000/- for the classrooms. M/s Birla Foundation have donated Rs.3 lakhs for the project. Many more donors pooled in and helped Muktha realize her dream.
“I never faced any problems in getting funds. Guru Raghavendra has been very kind to me and every Thursday, the auspicious day for the Guru, brings some good news to me. Companies like Infosys and others have donated computers. My mother and brothers were fearing as to how I am going to finish such a huge project without any strong support from the Government financially. But I went ahead boldly because I trusted in God and I had the support of the Government agencies/officials and police in other ways. All my children and teachers are with me in my prayers that will not go waste. Here is my son, sent by God, who may take over this school after me”, she says, cuddling a 9 month old Raghavendra. This bubbly and cute child was abandoned at her doors as a 15-day old infant.
“There are six other orphans too in my school. Besides, among the 44 blind children, 14 are orphans. In fact, even the cook Manjula is a destitute brought to us in a very bad condition. She could not even talk properly. Shown proper love and attention, each soul blooms into a beautiful flower. Today, she confidently takes care of cooking for all of us. She is very dedicated and sincere.” Manjula is also physically challenged. There are seven blind teachers.
Ms.Vanaja, the computer trainer, also visually impaired, explains to us as to how computers are confidently used by the blind children because of a special software ‘Jaws’, which gives out oral instructions. She also demonstrates the E-Slate, which was developed right in that school, as a research project of Ms.Nidhi Kalra and Mr.Tom Lauweres of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
Though Braille is a wonderful tool for the blind, learning through this technique is difficult. To combat this, Mathru and Carnegie Mellon University created the automated tutor to teach children to use the Braille slate. The hardware is an electronic slate and stylus, called an ‘E-Slate’ which transmits a student’s writing to a computer. Specifically, the electrical contact between the slate and stylus is interpreted by a microprocessor. The computer-based software tutor analyses the writing for correctness and uses text-to-speech synthesis to give students immediate audio feedback on what they are writing. This helps the learner to better understand the cause and effect phenomenon of writing Braille. This is a first of its kind E-Slate and is used by the children of Mathru in a great way. For more information on this log on to http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~nidhi/brailletutor.html or http://brailletutor.blogspot.com
All the children are bubbling with energy and enthusiasm. We send normal children to various workshops for self-confidence, public speaking and personality development. Here, all these are taken care of by the mother Ms.Muktha and her dedicated team of teachers. The show-case exhibiting the various shields and trophies won by the children of this school at various events is proof of this. Little Satish and Srinivas readily demonstrate their talent in public speaking and mono-acting. Srinivas rightly speaks about Helen Keller for 25 minutes, without even a small error. Children are sent to music and yoga classes. Wherever they have to go, they go by the public transport buses only and without any problem. Ms.Bhagya says she commuted from Yelahanka Satellite Town to J.P.Nagar for two years to do her Dip. In Teaching for the Blind and secured the first rank, competing with a general group.
“I plan to start an adult education programme and a vocational training centre. I am proud to say that four of my ex-trainees are well-placed in their life today. My goal is to see that all the children educated by Mathru settle well and lead independent lives. I am quite strict with the children, as far as disciplining them is concerned. They know how much I love them and they can do anything for me”, says Muktha.
The school runs purely on donations and the daily expenses almost come to Rs.1000/-. Monthly salaries for the teachers total up to nearly Rs.19000/- and other recurring expenses amount to nearly Rs.7000/-. Ms.Muktha also practices law to help run the institution. Donors willing to sponsor any of these expenses are welcome. Donations are exempted from IT, as per Sec.G. The school can be contacted on 28463992, 9886032632.
As I walk out of the school half-heartedly, the wall hangings with lovely sayings inspire me- ‘Love brings vision’; ‘Kindness is the language which is heard by the deaf, seen by the blind’; ‘All we need is an opportunity and care’.
Sudha Narasimhachar
Yelahanka Satellite Town
E-mail: rvnachar@dataone.in; rvnachar@vsnl.net
About the boy – needing heart surgery (scheduled for April 2007):
Muneendra, a partially blind child aged around 8 years has been diagnosed as under:
‘Congenital Heart Disease/Double Outlet left ventricle/Large inlet VSD with subasterial extension/Small secundum ASD with bi-directional shunt/severe pulmonic stenosis.’
He is an orphan. Diagnosis has been confirmed by three hospitals viz., Jayadeva, Manipal and M.S.Ramaiah Hospital, Bangalore. He has to undergo two surgeries, one an open heart surgery costing around Rs.1,22,000. The blind school is run purely on donations and hence meeting such expenses will be very difficult for Ms.Muktha. The Cardiology Dept. of M.S.Ramaiah hospital have come forward to conduct the open heart surgery during April, 2007 free of cost, provided the school bears at least Rs.25000/- towards medicines and hospital charges. Ms.Muktha would be very grateful if this amount could be donated by some kind hearted donors.
All donations are exempted under Sec.80(G) of I.T.Act.
