Tamil Nadu   

Flying miles to serve the poor

Photo: K. Ananthan

SERVING LOVE: (From left) Sonia Kaur, Amandeep Virk and Gurman Kaur Kang from the city of Seattle in the United States involved in community service at the Sankara Eye Centre in Coimbatore. –

COIMBATORE: At first sight, they look out of place.

Three attractive girls from the U.S. – Amandeep Virk (19), Gurman Kaur Kang (21) and Sonia Kaur (21) – may first give one the impression that they are on a vacation to visit their native place in Punjab and tour other parts of India.

But, they are not. The girls say they are in the right place and have been planning for close to a year to come to Sankara Eye Centre, a community eye care hospital here.

For the last 10 days, the three have been helping patients in the wards of the hospital and serving them food in the canteen.

With an enormous appetite for community service, they also teach English to trainee hospital staff who are to be posted at new hospitals coming up Karnataka and Gujarat.

It has not been easy for them to fly to India. It had taken a lot of perseverance and three months to persuade their parents to allow them to come to a city where they have no friends or relatives.

It all started a year ago when Sonia saw a 30-second footage on television at home in Seattle on the U.S.-based Sankara Eye Foundation’s campaign on the community eye care in Coimbatore. She and the other two then planned the trip to the centre here.

Managing Trustee of the centre R.V. Ramani says those willing to serve will have to first apply to the Foundation.

They will be screened to assess their desire to serve. The parents also have to sign on the forms to express their consent for their children’s trip to Coimbatore.

So far, 40 students have served at the centre, he says.

Actually, this is vacation time for the girls. Sonia was in London last year and Gurman could have gone to Italy this year. Amandeep fell sick when she came to India last time and vowed never to return because of that.

But, the opportunity of community service shown in the footage has brought the University of Washington students to Saravanampatti – a town about 10 km north of Coimbatore city – that has nothing which London or Italy can offer to them on a vacation.

At the canteen for the patients, Gurman serves “sambar” to aged men and women who have undergone cataract surgery.

Sonia and Amandeep provide water and pappad. Gurman says there is no language problem. Sambar is very obvious in its colour and form.

“More” (for buttermilk in Tamil) is the white one, she says. So, serving is no tough task.

“Their attitude to serve is very appreciable,” says 65-year-old K. Ramamurthy, one of the patients. The girls know he can eat only wheat dosa because he is diabetic.

The girls spin like a top during lunch hour because they and a few others have to serve food to 470 patients. “More than 100 patients eat in each session of 20 minutes. Food is served for four rows of 28 patients each,” says canteen manager K. Sankarasubramanian.

Little wonder that the girls find it difficult to pose for a photograph for this report.

“There is very high motivation here to help poor people,” says Amandeep. Notwithstanding language barriers, interaction helps in knowing each patient’s problem. “Paati (grandma) and thaatha (grandfather),” says Gurman in Tamil, pointing at an elderly woman and man who have undergone surgeries.

Once back home, the girls plan to hold a power point presentation on what they see and do here.

“We will show it in our institution to inspire fellow students into such service,” they say.

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