Last Saturday I went to be part of the
Woolly Mammoth Project organised by ROPIO (Reach Out and Pass It On)
Foundation. A runner buddy is involved with the organization and had sent in an
invite.Since the place was right near where I work and since I had no patient
appointments for the day, I sneaked out of the workplace to see what the
project was all about. Basically I didn't go into much trouble.
I'm glad I went there. It was a
Saturday morning well spent.
I live on hope. Just meeting
people who want to make a difference is encouraging.I am
writing this post to share my experience from that day!
So, ROPIO had collected
woollens/clothes for the needy and sent out teams of 4-5 people to go and meet
people living on the streets in various locations,talk and interact with them, give them the clothes.The idea was to get to understand the life that these
homeless people live-what keeps them going,reach out to them somehow!
As Murphy (President at ROPIO) very
candidly stated-this one day interaction would do nothing to help those poor
families. We just helped them pass an hour or so probably. We were
entertainment for them for that morning. It was more for 'us' to feel
good about ourselves. But that's okay:)
Along with three youngsters
,Akash,Nalini and Sushmita we went to meet a couple of families who
have been living under and around the flyover near Rajdhani College in West
Delhi. At least one lady, who is a grandmother herself said her parents also
lived and died there.So if we are to believe that, we are talking of the 4th
generation living homeless in that location!!We call them homeless,but they
refer to that place as home:)All these people are originally from the state of
Rajasthan. They said they've been living there long before the flyovers, metro
and other fancies came up.
For a livelihood, the men folk and
some of the womenfolk do the age old business of going house to house,
collecting old clothes in exchange for plastic containers/steel utensils.Thankfully
,there's a night shelter right opposite the flyover under which they live-and
they are allowed to go to this shelter and use their wash rooms, bathe and get
water.Small mercies!
They cook food in the typical
"3 pieces of brick" kind of stove. Fuel used is mostly cardboards and
broken pieces of furniture picked from here and there.They are blissfully
unaware of pollution and the impending doom!
They live a day to day existence
of course. Any food is a feast and when I asked what was for lunch-they said
“whatever the men folk will bring from the mandi we will cook and eat!”Simple!
One or two from the family stay up
and guard the others as they sleep in the open at night, be it summer or winter
.The flock /pack stays together:)They believe no one can do them any harm!
The first woman we approached was
way too wary to talk to us-there was fear and suspicion in her eyes
as she tried to somehow make her two malnourished infant children feel warm by
wrapping them up in clothes,cuddling them and holding them tight.
There were children in dozens.
Each couple had at least three or more with some more on the way.Most of them
were bare feet, scantily dressed and ill equipped to brave the chilly winter
morning, looked unkempt with running noses et al and were left free
to fend for themselves, under that flyover-even the toddlers. I have no idea
how they stay safe in the middle of all that traffic. Survival of the fittest
:)
There was one family who was
dressed cleaner ,looked healthier and smiled more.They told us they don't talk
to the rest of the folks staying there as they had some “fight” with them.
Some positives I brought
back.There was a young girl ,probably as old as my son( 12 years),heating a tin
full of water.When I asked what it was for,she said it was for her to bathe as
it was too cold.Thank heavens she would not freeze while bathing for today at
least:)
There was one pregnant woman who
looked ever so pretty wearing a big nose pin. When we asked her where she
got it from she proudly announced it was made of gold and was worth 5.3 k and
she bought it from Karol Bagh! Thank heaven's she had something to show off:)
The little older kids apparently
go to a nearby Government school (they said that was possible only because they
finally have aadhar cards
now).When I asked them to show me their books and work done..one girl ,all of 9
or 10 years proudly flaunted her notebooks -Maths,English ,Drawing-she had a
very neat handwriting and had copied things from the blackboard in class.She
had no idea what she had written though:( All I could tell her was to hound her
teacher to explain to her what she was writing! The naughtier ones,the boys,
wanted to flaunt their books too but didn't have much to show.There were just
random scribblings on their notebooks. Even an older boy,maybe 15-16 years of
age ,wanted to show he can draw well and was very pleased when I tried my hand
at drawing something in his notebook!
Eventually,when we distributed the
woollens/clothes we had taken for them...as expected everyone just pounced on
them and crowded around Akash as he tried to go about it in a more
civilised manner.When life is such a big struggle,you have to grab/snatch
things to survive. Its survival of the fittest all the way.
We wondered later, if they would
actually wear any of those clothes or sell them off somewhere for a meal!
Anyway,as long as they proved useful to them somehow, our purpose was served!
Its not our place to judge them for ANYTHING at all!
Later,I just ended up marvelling
at the will to survive in every human being-despite all odds. In that short
interaction we saw it all-the hopelessness of life on the other side!
Some people have so much, yet they
stay unhappy. And some have nothing-but the struggle to breathe and eat keeps
them from worrying about other things. These people don’t worry about a
future-they just live day to day-the next meal precisely! It’s unfair-this
whole system! All born on this planet, all made of flesh and blood, yet
disparity infinite. Such is life-unfair to say the least!
But yes, that
Saturday, I counted my blessings all over again and thanked my
stars.All the things we take for granted in life are just a dream or may be
beyond imagination even for so many of our fellow beings.
At ROPIO per se,I was
hugely impressed to see so many college going youngsters turning
up to be part of the Woolly Mammoth Project. They could very well
have been mall hopping, watching a movie and making merry on a Saturday
morning. But here they were, participating in something that made way more
sense,according to me!
Amen!
Last Saturday I went to be part of the
Woolly Mammoth Project organised by ROPIO (Reach Out and Pass It On)
Foundation. A runner buddy is involved with the organization and had sent in an
invite.Since the place was right near where I work and since I had no patient
appointments for the day, I sneaked out of the workplace to see what the
project was all about. Basically I didn't go into much trouble.
I'm glad I went there. It was a
Saturday morning well spent.
I live on hope. Just meeting
people who want to make a difference is encouraging.I am
writing this post to share my experience from that day!
So, ROPIO had collected
woollens/clothes for the needy and sent out teams of 4-5 people to go and meet
people living on the streets in various locations,talk and interact with them, give them the clothes.The idea was to get to understand the life that these
homeless people live-what keeps them going,reach out to them somehow!
As Murphy (President at ROPIO) very
candidly stated-this one day interaction would do nothing to help those poor
families. We just helped them pass an hour or so probably. We were
entertainment for them for that morning. It was more for 'us' to feel
good about ourselves. But that's okay:)
Along with three youngsters
,Akash,Nalini and Sushmita we went to meet a couple of families who
have been living under and around the flyover near Rajdhani College in West
Delhi. At least one lady, who is a grandmother herself said her parents also
lived and died there.So if we are to believe that, we are talking of the 4th
generation living homeless in that location!!We call them homeless,but they
refer to that place as home:)All these people are originally from the state of
Rajasthan. They said they've been living there long before the flyovers, metro
and other fancies came up.
For a livelihood, the men folk and
some of the womenfolk do the age old business of going house to house,
collecting old clothes in exchange for plastic containers/steel utensils.Thankfully
,there's a night shelter right opposite the flyover under which they live-and
they are allowed to go to this shelter and use their wash rooms, bathe and get
water.Small mercies!
They cook food in the typical
"3 pieces of brick" kind of stove. Fuel used is mostly cardboards and
broken pieces of furniture picked from here and there.They are blissfully
unaware of pollution and the impending doom!
They live a day to day existence
of course. Any food is a feast and when I asked what was for lunch-they said
“whatever the men folk will bring from the mandi we will cook and eat!”Simple!
One or two from the family stay up
and guard the others as they sleep in the open at night, be it summer or winter
.The flock /pack stays together:)They believe no one can do them any harm!
The first woman we approached was
way too wary to talk to us-there was fear and suspicion in her eyes
as she tried to somehow make her two malnourished infant children feel warm by
wrapping them up in clothes,cuddling them and holding them tight.
Later, as I tried to cajole her to
talk to us, from a distance, she pointed at her husband and signalled to let me
know that he didn't take kindly to her talking to anybody and hit her
regularly.Though I am no one to judge, her husband looked like he could be under
the influence of some drugs too!
There were children in dozens.
Each couple had at least three or more with some more on the way.Most of them
were bare feet, scantily dressed and ill equipped to brave the chilly winter
morning, looked unkempt with running noses et al and were left free
to fend for themselves, under that flyover-even the toddlers. I have no idea
how they stay safe in the middle of all that traffic. Survival of the fittest
:)
There was one family who was
dressed cleaner ,looked healthier and smiled more.They told us they don't talk
to the rest of the folks staying there as they had some “fight” with them.
Some positives I brought
back.There was a young girl ,probably as old as my son( 12 years),heating a tin
full of water.When I asked what it was for,she said it was for her to bathe as
it was too cold.Thank heavens she would not freeze while bathing for today at
least:)
There was one pregnant woman who
looked ever so pretty wearing a big nose pin. When we asked her where she
got it from she proudly announced it was made of gold and was worth 5.3 k and
she bought it from Karol Bagh! Thank heaven's she had something to show off:)
The little older kids apparently
go to a nearby Government school (they said that was possible only because they
finally have aadhar cards
now).When I asked them to show me their books and work done..one girl ,all of 9
or 10 years proudly flaunted her notebooks -Maths,English ,Drawing-she had a
very neat handwriting and had copied things from the blackboard in class.She
had no idea what she had written though:( All I could tell her was to hound her
teacher to explain to her what she was writing! The naughtier ones,the boys,
wanted to flaunt their books too but didn't have much to show.There were just
random scribblings on their notebooks. Even an older boy,maybe 15-16 years of
age ,wanted to show he can draw well and was very pleased when I tried my hand
at drawing something in his notebook!
Eventually,when we distributed the
woollens/clothes we had taken for them...as expected everyone just pounced on
them and crowded around Akash as he tried to go about it in a more
civilised manner.When life is such a big struggle,you have to grab/snatch
things to survive. Its survival of the fittest all the way.
We wondered later, if they would
actually wear any of those clothes or sell them off somewhere for a meal!
Anyway,as long as they proved useful to them somehow, our purpose was served!
Its not our place to judge them for ANYTHING at all!
Later,I just ended up marvelling
at the will to survive in every human being-despite all odds. In that short
interaction we saw it all-the hopelessness of life on the other side!
Some people have so much, yet they
stay unhappy. And some have nothing-but the struggle to breathe and eat keeps
them from worrying about other things. These people don’t worry about a
future-they just live day to day-the next meal precisely! It’s unfair-this
whole system! All born on this planet, all made of flesh and blood, yet
disparity infinite. Such is life-unfair to say the least!
But yes, that
Saturday, I counted my blessings all over again and thanked my
stars.All the things we take for granted in life are just a dream or may be
beyond imagination even for so many of our fellow beings.
At ROPIO per se,I was
hugely impressed to see so many college going youngsters turning
up to be part of the Woolly Mammoth Project. They could very well
have been mall hopping, watching a movie and making merry on a Saturday
morning. But here they were, participating in something that made way more
sense,according to me!
It was heart warming to see the
college kids there. Maybe some or many of them will end up doing more for the
society and needy people at large!
Amen!
1 comment:
Heart warming, with a lesson - Today, i'm going to be happier than a bird who found a french fry.
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