Thursday, April 05, 2007
Goodness and Empathy….
... Kindness and compassion … it’s all around us.
I have gathered together some heart warming and encouraging stories. These came from various responses I have received to some of my E-mails and narratives about “good” happening around us. So many people are spreading warmth and caring, each making a difference to the lives of the “not so fortunate” people that enter their lives, for a short moment or for a long while. It’s very encouraging and reassurinng. There is a lot of hope for Humankind!
A friend from Portland, Oregon told me about some of the work her brother from Luncknow is involved in. In Nov last year, Sudha Bajpai, who runs her own successful Travel agency in Portland Oregon told me about the commendable service in remote villages of North India. There were three projects she mentioned about:
1) Taking medical assistance to villagers, creatung AIDS awareness/immunization/check ups etc.
2) Her brother had some land that he donated to start a school for village children. It does not have electricity so cannot use computers. He is trying to see if he can get solar panels installed that may provide electricity. ,
3) He dreams of starting a law school for women who have no other income source and are good in studies. He has a commitment from State Bank but they will not help with land purchase. They will help with funding for building and also open a branch at that building to help the women in whatever way they can.
Aside: I have known Sudha for quite a while.We worked together on the board of ICA (India Cultural Assoc. - http://www.icaportland.org/) in Portland, Oregon, several years ago (in1993)!
Another friend from Boston told me that she was inspired by my narrative about our visit to Matru School for the blind. It reminded her, she said, of a facility in Delhi that takes care of abandoned children. She visited Udayan Care once and was so moved that she wrote an article for India Currents (a mag. from California), titled “Nobody's Children”. See: http://indiacurrents.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=43b4a24e6433413e2571e6948047b9e0. It talks about the compassion of it’s founder, Kiran Modi. This org. in Delhi served 36 children - 25 girls and 11 boys at the time of the Vandana’s reporting in Mar of 2003. The children, most of who come from poor families, are from different parts of India and different religious backgrounds. Udayan Care strives to respect every child’s religion. The narrative ends thus… “As the organization’s Web Site (www.udayancare.org) states, there are only two lasting bequests you can give to children: roots and wings. The Udayan Care family strives to do both.”
[ASIDE]: I have known Vandana for a while now. We were both involved along with a few other women, in starting SAWERA (South Asian Women’s Empowerment and Resource Alliance – http://www.sawera.org/) in Portland, Oregon way back in the Summer of 1997, to reach out to South Asian women affected by Domestic Violence. She now lives in Boston, teaches in a college and writes…
Recently, Vandana Singh's photo appeared in the Sunday times of India, Nov 19th, It was in "Guest Editor's Choice" page. The headline was "ALMOST FAMOUS". The article said this "They weave a web of magic with their words. Reaching for the stars, but not yet there, these are promising writers, who've got what it takes to make it big. Literary stalwarts pick the newbies who're a cut above the rest"They had featured 2 authors from each language - English, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Assamese, including photos. The paper has the same photo of Vandana as on her web site: http://www.wheatlandpress.com/polyphony/authors/vsingh.html and about Vandana too from here. The article said "The other writer whose work I'd like to watch out for is Vandana Singh. I have only read a single story by her, but it sensuous language and careful craft are full of promise, " . Vandana teaches college physics and writes mainly speculative fiction. Her children's book Young Uncle comes to Town was first published in India" […end ASIDE]
Yet another friend from California, who visited Bangalore recently shared her satisfaction and the happiness she derived in “giving” more than just “alms”. She took a little time off from her busy day on a hectic business trip and made a difference to one individual. She provided a means and funds for a “bell boy/caretaker” of a service apartment. .She said “the satisfaction was immense and reinforced my real passion.”
The story in her own words…
“I have been staying at a service apt from 3-4 weeks and got to know the caretaker a bit. He is from a village in Bihar, hasn't gone home in 2 yrs, basically lives by himself in the apartment taking care of guests. Recently I was talking to him about whether he knew English, and that he should put some effort given that a lot of the guests are foreigners. He seemed the hard working type, but just did not have the information or means to find classes/pay for it. This week, I noticed a spoken English business which I pass by everyday to get to the apt. Finally this morning as I was heading out wanting to be in the office by 8:00 and thinking I should solve world hunger at the project :), I just STOPPED, walked upstairs, found out the information, walked back to the apt with my luggage, gave that guy info and some money and said - go enroll in the classes :). He was so grateful and the experience for me was amazing. All this took 30 mins of my time, I was maybe 1.5 hrs late to starting my work day..but big deal :)..”
I can imagine the sparkle in the eyes of the receiver… Manju has also embarked on another project. Along with her classmates from high school they are giving a wonderful gift to their teachers. They are going to build cubicle offices for the teachers (much like our corporate offices I think). Teachers in schools here usually sit arond a large table in a small crowded staff room. This new office will give them the private space needed at work where they spend the larger part of their days.
Manju has also made me aware of the good work her dad is involved in with Byrraju foundation – http://www.byrrajufoundation.org/ - dedicated to rural transformation.
ASIDE: I have known Manju for a few years and we volunteered together at SAWERA in Portland. We have met a few times in Bangalore when her business travels have brought her here.
The Beaverton Rotary Club in Oregon, had proposed a project for handicapped children in Shimoga, Karnataka through the Beaverton Rotary Club and Shimoga (host) Club for a US$25,000 project which will provide a park and swimming pool for training mentally handicapped children. They have given beds and cots, and kitchen equipment for Happy Home For The (physically) Handicapped and Ashakiran School which has helped 700 kids since it started in 1980. Shantu Shah, an active citizen or Portland, Oregon told me about this good work he is involved in. He strongly urged that one should join Rotary Club in our city through which one could make 3.5 times the contributions through international club matching dollars with The Rotary Foundation funds for humanitarian projects. www.Rotary.org
ASIDE: Shantu Shah is an active member of the Portland/Beaverton community in Oregon. He’s on the board of Kalakendra (http://www.kalakendra.org/) – a wonderful organization in Portland promoting the various performing arts of Indian sub-continent since 1987! He was running for the US Congress candidacy during May 2006 Primary election for (a) the India US alignment and (b) India's seat on the UN Security council. See: http://shah4uscongress.blogspot.com/
KS Bhat, only an quaintance at present, whom I’m in E-mail contact and have never met as yet, (although he now works in the group I used work at Intel and lives in a neighborhood close to mine) shared with me the satisfaction he derives from the charititable work he is doing for schools around his native village near Mangalore. They have donated books to the library and computers and sports items to the children there.
My husband’s neice in Chennai, told me this while we were casually talking on the phone the other day. She helps numerous blind students take their exams – recording their lessons and handing them audio cassettes. They come all the way from a nearby town (Arakonam, I think she said), to pick these up these cassettes which she records for them after the kids have gone to sleep and the family chores have all been taken care of. Latha gives them tea and snacks and they take a nap before they head back home covering some parts of the long journey back by walk, bus and electric train. Previously Latha used to be the proxy who took exams for blind students. They all graduated and are settling down with jobs in the city.
A close family friend, told me about her daughter’s school raising some money for Matru School for the Blind in Yelahanka. She saw a notice of it in the school bulletin board here in Bangalore. Hema shared this with me after she read my narrative about Matru, after our recent visit there.
I was very pleased with the immediate and spontaneous response I received to an appeal I made for financial assistance to poor man diagnosed with colon cancer. This was the school van driver of a friend. Sukanya, whose daughter rides in the van to school daily. She told me that he put all his life’s savings to cover the cost of his surgery and was left with nothing to support his on-going chemotherapy treatement. With the generosity of several people, the goal of Rs. 70K or so, is close to being met – this is the cost for 6 months of treatment. My appeal raised about 1/3 of the amount needed, all from a few friends from a Portland, Oregon. The timely financial assistance helped at least one person with this debilitating life threatening disease. Though cancer is not curable yet, every time we hear of someone who suffers, it’s wonderful if we can give the gift of life for as long as medical science allows us to prolong life and perseverance of the patient lasts.
While sharing and giving is happening on 1:1 basis, on a small scale all around us, there are organizations like AIF (America India Foundation) - turning around the lives of huge populations, for the better. Read all about AIF’s mission of accelerating social and economic change in India (http://www.aifoundation.org/) and their Service Corps program – just like the Peace Corps.
Usha, my good friend, is active with the Seattle Chapter there - http://www.aifoundation.org/volunteer/join-a-chapter/seatle.htm. She spoke about an upcoming exciting fund-raiser of AIF “Bow ties and bangles” for which she shopped in Hyderabad (famous for it’s glass, lac and stone bangles), during her recent short visit.
AIF has an impressive line up of people on it’s Board of Directors including Vinod Dham - Founder and Managing Member, New Path Ventures LLC. AIF Ambassadors include Rahul Bose Actor , Deepak Chopra Founder, The Chopra Center at LaCosta Resort and Sp,Melanie Griffith, Actress , Mira Nair – Filmmaker, Gloria Steinem – Author. They have a top-down approach to social services and by sheer magnitude of support are able to make a huge change to under privildged communities in India.
Lakshmi Praturi an ex-AIF staff, an ex-Intellite (I used to see her in the quarterly Intel BUM – Business Update Meetings regularly), ex-Portlander (I saw her once briefly at a friend’s place in Portland), ex-Hyderabadi I think, did commendable work for AIF (after working in high tech and venture capital, made the transition to the foundation world and service in India, I read in one of her talks: http://www.rdvp.org/~sketchpel/blog/2004/10/rdvp-seminar-lakshmi-pratury-10132004.html). She says about working for an NGO ….”For those of us coming from industry, realize that things go slower: If the time scale of the corporation is the fiscal quarter, the timescale of the NGO is the 3 or 5 year plan. Use connections shamelessly, have them help you find the real change agents”. Looks like she was involved in AIF’s Digital Equilizer program whose Vision is “An India where ALL children have access to technology and information to prepare them for the emerging Digital Age. See: http://www.aifoundation.org/education/de/default.htm.
Lakhmi alludes to the importance of India – “With 1/6 of the global population, India is too big to ignore. We can't afford to have India become a non-democratic country. Therefore, part of the goal of the AIF is to connect the world's richest democrary with the world's largest democracy” I found out that Lakshmi has started her own venture called Tamarind Grove: http://www.tamarindgrove.com/ – creating change of a different kind.
...
Last, but certainly not the least at all….I’d like to call your attention to a very recent act of great generosity & empathy – a couple that reached out, just by thinking “what if we were in their shoes”. It’s a story of strangers helping strangers, enabled through the work of our local newspaper daily. A section titled “Times Impact” on the front page of our April 2nd “Bangalore Times” paper carried an article titled “Couple foots boy’s medical bill” … “It isn’t a heartless world out there” the article starts off … “Barely hours after the Sunday Times of India reported the plight of a nine year old in need of articfical limbs following an accident, offers of help started pouring in…. “Moved by Krishna’s condition and the family crisis, Laxmi Prasad and his wife Pragati, in a philanthropic gesture, donated the entire estimated medical treatment cost of Rs. 1.3 lakhs (about USD 3000)” …. “we couldn’t believe that people like Laxmi and his wife exist in today’s world” said Chinnappa, Krishna’s father, a coolie by occupation. “Otheriwise we had no hopes. Even getting 3 square meals a day is big thing for us”
“We have not done anything out of the way for Krishna, said Prasad , an IT professional and a resident of Vibhutipura. “My wife and I read the article and were very moved by his state. What if it was my son and we too were in the same financial crisis”, asked the father of 9 year old Adithya. On Sunday, Lakshmi and Prasad met Krishna and his parents, who could not believe that such a miracle could happen.
“Krishna met with an accident on Mar 27th near his house in Ramanagaram. His right leg was badly crushed by a lorry and had to be amputated. Through the day the hospital has been receiving numerous calls from all over the city offering assistance and enquiring about his condition” – the newspaper reported.
While the photo in the newspaper of April 1st showing Krishna lying on the hospital bed with one leg amputed was heart-breaking, the picture next day on the front page with caption that read “He’s ready to walk a new life” brought back a whole lot of warmth and hope.
-Sri Lakshmi (Cheema)
I have gathered together some heart warming and encouraging stories. These came from various responses I have received to some of my E-mails and narratives about “good” happening around us. So many people are spreading warmth and caring, each making a difference to the lives of the “not so fortunate” people that enter their lives, for a short moment or for a long while. It’s very encouraging and reassurinng. There is a lot of hope for Humankind!
A friend from Portland, Oregon told me about some of the work her brother from Luncknow is involved in. In Nov last year, Sudha Bajpai, who runs her own successful Travel agency in Portland Oregon told me about the commendable service in remote villages of North India. There were three projects she mentioned about:
1) Taking medical assistance to villagers, creatung AIDS awareness/immunization/check ups etc.
2) Her brother had some land that he donated to start a school for village children. It does not have electricity so cannot use computers. He is trying to see if he can get solar panels installed that may provide electricity. ,
3) He dreams of starting a law school for women who have no other income source and are good in studies. He has a commitment from State Bank but they will not help with land purchase. They will help with funding for building and also open a branch at that building to help the women in whatever way they can.
Aside: I have known Sudha for quite a while.We worked together on the board of ICA (India Cultural Assoc. - http://www.icaportland.org/) in Portland, Oregon, several years ago (in1993)!
Another friend from Boston told me that she was inspired by my narrative about our visit to Matru School for the blind. It reminded her, she said, of a facility in Delhi that takes care of abandoned children. She visited Udayan Care once and was so moved that she wrote an article for India Currents (a mag. from California), titled “Nobody's Children”. See: http://indiacurrents.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=43b4a24e6433413e2571e6948047b9e0. It talks about the compassion of it’s founder, Kiran Modi. This org. in Delhi served 36 children - 25 girls and 11 boys at the time of the Vandana’s reporting in Mar of 2003. The children, most of who come from poor families, are from different parts of India and different religious backgrounds. Udayan Care strives to respect every child’s religion. The narrative ends thus… “As the organization’s Web Site (www.udayancare.org) states, there are only two lasting bequests you can give to children: roots and wings. The Udayan Care family strives to do both.”
[ASIDE]: I have known Vandana for a while now. We were both involved along with a few other women, in starting SAWERA (South Asian Women’s Empowerment and Resource Alliance – http://www.sawera.org/) in Portland, Oregon way back in the Summer of 1997, to reach out to South Asian women affected by Domestic Violence. She now lives in Boston, teaches in a college and writes…
Recently, Vandana Singh's photo appeared in the Sunday times of India, Nov 19th, It was in "Guest Editor's Choice" page. The headline was "ALMOST FAMOUS". The article said this "They weave a web of magic with their words. Reaching for the stars, but not yet there, these are promising writers, who've got what it takes to make it big. Literary stalwarts pick the newbies who're a cut above the rest"They had featured 2 authors from each language - English, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Assamese, including photos. The paper has the same photo of Vandana as on her web site: http://www.wheatlandpress.com/polyphony/authors/vsingh.html and about Vandana too from here. The article said "The other writer whose work I'd like to watch out for is Vandana Singh. I have only read a single story by her, but it sensuous language and careful craft are full of promise, " . Vandana teaches college physics and writes mainly speculative fiction. Her children's book Young Uncle comes to Town was first published in India" […end ASIDE]
Yet another friend from California, who visited Bangalore recently shared her satisfaction and the happiness she derived in “giving” more than just “alms”. She took a little time off from her busy day on a hectic business trip and made a difference to one individual. She provided a means and funds for a “bell boy/caretaker” of a service apartment. .She said “the satisfaction was immense and reinforced my real passion.”
The story in her own words…
“I have been staying at a service apt from 3-4 weeks and got to know the caretaker a bit. He is from a village in Bihar, hasn't gone home in 2 yrs, basically lives by himself in the apartment taking care of guests. Recently I was talking to him about whether he knew English, and that he should put some effort given that a lot of the guests are foreigners. He seemed the hard working type, but just did not have the information or means to find classes/pay for it. This week, I noticed a spoken English business which I pass by everyday to get to the apt. Finally this morning as I was heading out wanting to be in the office by 8:00 and thinking I should solve world hunger at the project :), I just STOPPED, walked upstairs, found out the information, walked back to the apt with my luggage, gave that guy info and some money and said - go enroll in the classes :). He was so grateful and the experience for me was amazing. All this took 30 mins of my time, I was maybe 1.5 hrs late to starting my work day..but big deal :)..”
I can imagine the sparkle in the eyes of the receiver… Manju has also embarked on another project. Along with her classmates from high school they are giving a wonderful gift to their teachers. They are going to build cubicle offices for the teachers (much like our corporate offices I think). Teachers in schools here usually sit arond a large table in a small crowded staff room. This new office will give them the private space needed at work where they spend the larger part of their days.
Manju has also made me aware of the good work her dad is involved in with Byrraju foundation – http://www.byrrajufoundation.org/ - dedicated to rural transformation.
ASIDE: I have known Manju for a few years and we volunteered together at SAWERA in Portland. We have met a few times in Bangalore when her business travels have brought her here.
The Beaverton Rotary Club in Oregon, had proposed a project for handicapped children in Shimoga, Karnataka through the Beaverton Rotary Club and Shimoga (host) Club for a US$25,000 project which will provide a park and swimming pool for training mentally handicapped children. They have given beds and cots, and kitchen equipment for Happy Home For The (physically) Handicapped and Ashakiran School which has helped 700 kids since it started in 1980. Shantu Shah, an active citizen or Portland, Oregon told me about this good work he is involved in. He strongly urged that one should join Rotary Club in our city through which one could make 3.5 times the contributions through international club matching dollars with The Rotary Foundation funds for humanitarian projects. www.Rotary.org
ASIDE: Shantu Shah is an active member of the Portland/Beaverton community in Oregon. He’s on the board of Kalakendra (http://www.kalakendra.org/) – a wonderful organization in Portland promoting the various performing arts of Indian sub-continent since 1987! He was running for the US Congress candidacy during May 2006 Primary election for (a) the India US alignment and (b) India's seat on the UN Security council. See: http://shah4uscongress.blogspot.com/
KS Bhat, only an quaintance at present, whom I’m in E-mail contact and have never met as yet, (although he now works in the group I used work at Intel and lives in a neighborhood close to mine) shared with me the satisfaction he derives from the charititable work he is doing for schools around his native village near Mangalore. They have donated books to the library and computers and sports items to the children there.
My husband’s neice in Chennai, told me this while we were casually talking on the phone the other day. She helps numerous blind students take their exams – recording their lessons and handing them audio cassettes. They come all the way from a nearby town (Arakonam, I think she said), to pick these up these cassettes which she records for them after the kids have gone to sleep and the family chores have all been taken care of. Latha gives them tea and snacks and they take a nap before they head back home covering some parts of the long journey back by walk, bus and electric train. Previously Latha used to be the proxy who took exams for blind students. They all graduated and are settling down with jobs in the city.
A close family friend, told me about her daughter’s school raising some money for Matru School for the Blind in Yelahanka. She saw a notice of it in the school bulletin board here in Bangalore. Hema shared this with me after she read my narrative about Matru, after our recent visit there.
I was very pleased with the immediate and spontaneous response I received to an appeal I made for financial assistance to poor man diagnosed with colon cancer. This was the school van driver of a friend. Sukanya, whose daughter rides in the van to school daily. She told me that he put all his life’s savings to cover the cost of his surgery and was left with nothing to support his on-going chemotherapy treatement. With the generosity of several people, the goal of Rs. 70K or so, is close to being met – this is the cost for 6 months of treatment. My appeal raised about 1/3 of the amount needed, all from a few friends from a Portland, Oregon. The timely financial assistance helped at least one person with this debilitating life threatening disease. Though cancer is not curable yet, every time we hear of someone who suffers, it’s wonderful if we can give the gift of life for as long as medical science allows us to prolong life and perseverance of the patient lasts.
While sharing and giving is happening on 1:1 basis, on a small scale all around us, there are organizations like AIF (America India Foundation) - turning around the lives of huge populations, for the better. Read all about AIF’s mission of accelerating social and economic change in India (http://www.aifoundation.org/) and their Service Corps program – just like the Peace Corps.
Usha, my good friend, is active with the Seattle Chapter there - http://www.aifoundation.org/volunteer/join-a-chapter/seatle.htm. She spoke about an upcoming exciting fund-raiser of AIF “Bow ties and bangles” for which she shopped in Hyderabad (famous for it’s glass, lac and stone bangles), during her recent short visit.
AIF has an impressive line up of people on it’s Board of Directors including Vinod Dham - Founder and Managing Member, New Path Ventures LLC. AIF Ambassadors include Rahul Bose Actor , Deepak Chopra Founder, The Chopra Center at LaCosta Resort and Sp,Melanie Griffith, Actress , Mira Nair – Filmmaker, Gloria Steinem – Author. They have a top-down approach to social services and by sheer magnitude of support are able to make a huge change to under privildged communities in India.
Lakshmi Praturi an ex-AIF staff, an ex-Intellite (I used to see her in the quarterly Intel BUM – Business Update Meetings regularly), ex-Portlander (I saw her once briefly at a friend’s place in Portland), ex-Hyderabadi I think, did commendable work for AIF (after working in high tech and venture capital, made the transition to the foundation world and service in India, I read in one of her talks: http://www.rdvp.org/~sketchpel/blog/2004/10/rdvp-seminar-lakshmi-pratury-10132004.html). She says about working for an NGO ….”For those of us coming from industry, realize that things go slower: If the time scale of the corporation is the fiscal quarter, the timescale of the NGO is the 3 or 5 year plan. Use connections shamelessly, have them help you find the real change agents”. Looks like she was involved in AIF’s Digital Equilizer program whose Vision is “An India where ALL children have access to technology and information to prepare them for the emerging Digital Age. See: http://www.aifoundation.org/education/de/default.htm.
Lakhmi alludes to the importance of India – “With 1/6 of the global population, India is too big to ignore. We can't afford to have India become a non-democratic country. Therefore, part of the goal of the AIF is to connect the world's richest democrary with the world's largest democracy” I found out that Lakshmi has started her own venture called Tamarind Grove: http://www.tamarindgrove.com/ – creating change of a different kind.
...
Last, but certainly not the least at all….I’d like to call your attention to a very recent act of great generosity & empathy – a couple that reached out, just by thinking “what if we were in their shoes”. It’s a story of strangers helping strangers, enabled through the work of our local newspaper daily. A section titled “Times Impact” on the front page of our April 2nd “Bangalore Times” paper carried an article titled “Couple foots boy’s medical bill” … “It isn’t a heartless world out there” the article starts off … “Barely hours after the Sunday Times of India reported the plight of a nine year old in need of articfical limbs following an accident, offers of help started pouring in…. “Moved by Krishna’s condition and the family crisis, Laxmi Prasad and his wife Pragati, in a philanthropic gesture, donated the entire estimated medical treatment cost of Rs. 1.3 lakhs (about USD 3000)” …. “we couldn’t believe that people like Laxmi and his wife exist in today’s world” said Chinnappa, Krishna’s father, a coolie by occupation. “Otheriwise we had no hopes. Even getting 3 square meals a day is big thing for us”
“We have not done anything out of the way for Krishna, said Prasad , an IT professional and a resident of Vibhutipura. “My wife and I read the article and were very moved by his state. What if it was my son and we too were in the same financial crisis”, asked the father of 9 year old Adithya. On Sunday, Lakshmi and Prasad met Krishna and his parents, who could not believe that such a miracle could happen.
“Krishna met with an accident on Mar 27th near his house in Ramanagaram. His right leg was badly crushed by a lorry and had to be amputated. Through the day the hospital has been receiving numerous calls from all over the city offering assistance and enquiring about his condition” – the newspaper reported.
While the photo in the newspaper of April 1st showing Krishna lying on the hospital bed with one leg amputed was heart-breaking, the picture next day on the front page with caption that read “He’s ready to walk a new life” brought back a whole lot of warmth and hope.
-Sri Lakshmi (Cheema)
