There's A New Story At Every Bed

Thanks to my altruistic friend Yesha, whom I consider the epitome of altruism and selflessness, I decided to pay a visit to the Red Cross Society Center in our city (Only she can come up with new and great ideas to help people, and I'm always happy to help her in any of such endeavours). So she led a group of us friends to the center to meet the Head, who was more than happy to welcome us. There we decided to basically take up the task of counselling children suffering from Thalassaemia, and apart from that pay weekly visits to various government hospitals where there're patients in the T.B. Ward, Cancer Ward, Paraplegia Ward, and various other such wards. We are not some experts to sort out their problems, but we were advised by the head of Red Cross Society (RCS) to go and spend time with the patients, talk to them, befriend them, and make them feel a bit comfortable amidst the not-so-hygienic, and boring, and dull surroundings of the hospital. He first advised to take a few trips with the regular volunteers, and then once we are introduced to the hospital staff as RC Volunteers, and we see how they go about doing things, then we can start going on our own.

So today was my first day with the volunteers. We reached the RCS center from where their vehicle starts off and picks up volunteers on the way to the hospital. The volunteers today were basically ladies, senior citizens, who have been associated with the RCS since past 20 - 30 years, and have been regularly doing the rounds. As a part of regular routine, they stopped to buy fruits for the patients on the way. We were to go to the city Civil Hospital today. The volunteers took rounds in the T.B. ward, the Eye Center and the Paraplegia Ward on Fridays.

We started off with the T.B. ward, distributing fruits to every patient. Today, there were less patients as compared to any other week, that was what one of the volunteers told me. The Paraplegia Ward had some activity going on for the patients. So they were all out in the small area in front of the building. On taking a closer look, I found that there was a race going on. The handicapped patients were on their wheel-chairs and were racing against each other. Even the medical students took their turns on the wheel-chair; which according to them, was their way to feel what these patients felt, their way to experience what these patients generally have to go through for so long a period. The patients were surely enjoying it, hooting and cheering for their favourite doctors.

There were a few patients in the ward. We went and talked to them. Asked them a little bit of their personal details, how did they get hurt, what kind of operation had they undergone, and what did the doctor say about the recovery. They loved even the littlest of attention showered on them. Each and every patient wanted to share his/her experience with us, tell us what they do, how they got hurt and anything and everything that struck their mind at that instant. We inquired if we could provide them with books or any pastime activity, and made a note of it, and promised to bring it with us the next time we came.

In this ward, we were told to just keep the fruits on the beds as most of the patients were downstairs enjoying the events. So I started from one corner and Yesha from the other. One of the patients was on his bed. I went and offered him fruits. I asked him as to on which bed there were patients and on which there weren't. And he smilingly nodded to my queries every time.

The shocking part comes now. It was later that his mother called us all there, and told us that he wanted to share his life-story with us. He was born deaf. (Now wait a second. How could that be??? How did he understand what I was saying without me even gesturing much?? He understood all of it. And even gave proper answers to my questions.) Anyways, I listened to what she had to say. She said that since he was deaf, he got a deaf wife, which was very obvious. But the sad part was that they had two kids and both of them turned out to deaf by birth. It seemed to her that she was not destined to have normal grandchildren either. He was earning a meagre income of 2000 rupees per month and was managing his house. He put his children to a school, but his eight year old son ran away from there one day, as he disliked living in a hostel. He was reported missing and they tried their level best to find him. He was finally located after 15 days in some Orphanage, where someone must have left him when he must've been found roaming around on the streets.

Now he wants to study in a day school which is at Abu, and from where he can come home every week. She said that his father cant afford that kind of money, as the travelling expense for the month just amounts to 1000 rupees. So his son was not studying as of now. The guy was admitted here because of some injury to his knee. He was elated to show us a newspaper cutting in which there was an article about a surgery performed on his knee for the first time in India by a team of American and Indian doctors. His mother said that though he was deaf, he understood everything we said to him normally. I was amazed at the level to which this guy had developed his sense of understanding. But they say, that if a person looses one of the five senses, the other four become very strong. He was on the way to recovery. His wife hadn't been much supportive and was right now at her parents' place with the kids.

We asked her if he could read and write and she said that he had done his schooling. So we asked her if he would like to read some magazines and books, and he was all happy, nodding in affirmation. The books must've reached him by today evening itself. Then there was yet another patient who had fallen from a height and had dislocated his neck bone or some bone around that region (pure Gujarati words can still sound alien to me). The doctors said that there was no need of a surgery as this could be cured by stretching his head by dead weight and keeping it in that position. His condition was pitiable too.

Why am I sharing these stories with you ?? Well, because just one particular incident of the deaf patient shows what problems really are. And what we face in day to day life is nothing as compared to it. Sure even we may have our share of huge problems in life but most of us are lucky enough to not be troubled by problems of such intensity daily. These people literally live with it. They don't have any source of money for treatments, and if it's the head of the family who's a patient, then they don't even have money to afford the square meals per day. They are greedy for even the smallest attention bestowed upon them by anyone. I had a feeling that talking to them would make them feel better and happy, but I did not know that it would make them feel happy and elated to the extent that they were.

There were so many stories and experiences to listen to. And they give you a totally new dimension to life. These are the harsh, ground realities. If India's progressing as a nation on one side, there's a whole big section of society that is not enjoying the fruits of the economic boom. And I got a chance to meet them, and live their lives through their tales. They gave me a chance to see or experience some things like I've never done before. They make us realize how small deeds can be appreciated so much. They make us realize how lucky we've been to have been born and brought up in good, respectable and well-to-do families. They make us realize the importance of money. How for the rich and the upper middle class, where two thousand bucks gets you just a pair of branded jeans or a pair of branded glasses, there's one section of the society that runs all the monthly family expenses in two thousand bucks.

If we're suffering from problems such as a fights or quarrels with one of the many friends we have, there they are dealing with loneliness. They are desperately waiting for any damn soul to just look at them, notice them and talk to them, even if it for a few minutes. We don't realize the kind of comfort and security given to use by our near and dear ones until we meet such people.

I feel one cant say that he/she has seen everything in life, or has experienced all that was to, until he/she has spent time with such people, realised the facts that me and Yesha did, and what the rest of our group will, eventually. To develop an all round perspective in life, you need to know all the possible outcomes or conditions of any situation. And these people show you what the extreme opposite feels like.

I don't say that I've known all that I needed to in just this visit. This is just the beginning. This time the patients were very less as compared to any other day. The more the patients, the more the stories. The more the stories, the more the experiences. The more the experiences, the more the feel-good feeling for being able to help someone in whatever way possible and for enlightening our own selves from their talks.

There's a new story at every bed.... And I'm all ears...