Having five days of Diwali vacation made my shakechilli brain work faster on planning a trip to Agra to see Taj lit up on Diwali day. But the plan died off soon. Next on my mind was to visit a destitute home. So me and Gayu (my partner in crime) set out to do some research on the places that did not thrive wealthy donations or already rich destitute homes. After some ground work and visit, we rounded off on heading to Shanti Daan ashram in Gorai near Borivali.
With the mention of destitute homes having mentally unadvanced (I hate the word ‘mentally handicapped’) kids and old inmates, one tend to think that “Oh poor people they can’t do normal things like we can and god has not been kind to them” – sense of pity. We also shared the same feeling till we met the inmates who changed my perception about them being less fortunate.
We got a chance to meet the kids during the tea time in the evening. And voila! I even fed a kid with biscuits mixed with tea. It was so nice to see a smile on his face every time I said “Good Boy” ‘coz he ate every morsel that I fed him without getting cranky. Then we played passing the ball game with them. And was amazed to see them holding the ball or catching them perfectly most of the time.
And talking about talents, we got a glimpse of some good singing talent and ofcourse the candle making art. The belle pièce d'art was worth staring at for hours. The precision and beauty with which the candles were made, it was difficult for us to fathom the fact that these candles were made by the less fortunate ones. The pieces were at par with the ones that you would find in any designer store.
We had gone there to give them happiness and love on Diwali but we got back love from the kids in there. It was they who did our job. It was they who made our diwali a happy one. I also carried along with me a fact that its wrong to call these kids to be mentally handicapped as they are still a 5 or 6 yr old kids which you and me were once upon a time in our lives too. Only difference – we grew up with our age only to get feelings like hatredness, jealousy, anger, manipulation and calculative in our heart while these kids still remains a 5 or 6 yr. old kind spreading smile, happiness, love, talent with limited means and a sense of being happy with whatever they had.
In the end it leaves me with one question: Who is more mentally handicapped? Is it we the normal human beings with negative emotions and manipulative minds or the beautiful kids with equally beautiful hearts and positive minds?
