Counting my Blessings...

Like I said before,it’s been really long since I’ve been wanting to begin a blog.There have been many occasions when I’ve assimilated ideas for the blog in my mind .But the procrastinator in me was never successful in actually putting down my thoughts anywhere.I’m happy that I’ve finally been able to start and sincerely hope it’s a good beginning.

My desire of writing aggravated ever since I saw the movie ‘Rock On’ though the real feelings behind that have been washed out of my mind. Now that my emotions are again at a peak I decided to write all that I felt right away.

It’s not the first time I’m visiting a place for the destitutes,but for various reasons today’s experience has moved me.Probably there are a lot of people reading this who make it a point to go to such places regularly.I had really not planned to go to this place called “Little Drops” when our church had made arrangements, but early this week when my Dad asked me if I was accompanying the group, I gave him a yes.

(continued after a month’s gap- had to bring back the emotional peak arbitrarily)

12 of us including the driver reached there at around 12 30 pm after a drive of about 1 hour from the church.We had taken along with us quite a few bags of usable old clothes for the inmates there and a cheque of not a very huge sum, whatever we could collect from the church members. But any little help makes a huge difference to organizations like these with little foreign funds.

We reached there to see that they had kept the lunch ready and were waiting for our arrival. The lunch had been sponsored by one of the young earning members though he couldn’t make himself available that day. Since I’d been to this place about 2 years back, the place was quite familiar .Our priest started serving the food after a prayer and we took over the job.The sight of the food itself could make us feel the coldness there, but for those who had been cursed and abandoned by their near and dear ones this sight must have been very appetizing.

Most of the inmates who yearned for love welcomed us with a ‘sthothram’ folding their hands as in prayer. I guess that is how they have been trained. Many of them were totally bed ridden , affected with dementia and needed help in everthing they did.And as for those who could speak, they all had sad stories to tell. Many of these faces can never be forgotten. There was a lady well educated,after being affected by osteoporosis had become a burden to her brothers in Bangalore. Another old lady now undergoing treatment for breast cancer, supposedly a nurse or a doctor from what she says, trying hard to remember where she had worked ,now. She kept trying wanting to tell us the place she worked until we left the place.Another unforgettable character was this African girl who kept telling about lipstick and nail polish ,Dollies and laddoos. She had the same things to say when we had seen her 2 years back, the only change being she looked weaker. One man looking in his late forties who had gone blind 25 years back after an episode of typhoid, sang a devotional song for us. He had tears in his eyes when he said that he knew to read and write and stayed in Saidapet during his good days. After a walk around the whole place, we handed over our little contribution to the people concerned.

Finally we came down to have lunch , though most of us were very reluctant to, apprehensive about the taste and hygiene. This feeling made me feel guilty thinking how the thought of one bad meal was making me upset when I had the most delicious food every other day. They served the food asking us to have as much as we wanted ,but most of us took as less as possible. I’m sad to this, but one handful of rice made me feel like vomit even before it actually reached my tastebuds. With a lot of difficulty, I managed to have the very little I’d taken. It filled up tears in my eyes, realizing how blessed we are to have a wonderful family, a good house to live in and tasty ,nutritious food 3 times a day.We keep forgetting this and always look higher and higher without even thinking of the millions of people for whom it is a blessing to have a shelter and a meal a day. Being a special day if the lunch was prepared so bad, I can’t even imagine what the poor inmates would be having on ordinary days.

It’s human nature to complain for little things which make us unhappy or frustrated. When we are unsuccessful in achieving what we aspire, we grumble and start asking God why things never happen as we want them to. It’s when we see these really unlucky souls that we realize the perfection God has given to our lives .Probably many of them must be considering themselves blessed for having been brought from the dirty streets where the sky was their roof .I appreciate the people who are running this institute and similar ones inspite of the various hitches in their journey, and the people working in such places as volunteers forgetting their own hygiene and health, the real servants of God.


P.S .It’s very obvious that my vocabulary has shrunken ever since I left school, after which I’ve hardly written anything significant. Hope to improve myself as I keep blogging. And I’m really happy I’ve done something fruitful at the end of a rainy day(mind you!there was knee level water in our lane)which I wasted lazing around, bunking college.(about which I was proud of in the morning, having gone against our dictator princi, but towards the end felt guilty ,worried about getting the work signed by the HOD before the deadline- I guess bunking is not meant for people who don’t have the courage to)